Tigers have Warriors on ropes
LAWRENCE Neil-Smith’s love affair with the WACA continued on Sunday when he bagged a five-wicket haul as the Tasmanian Tigers caused Western Australia a painful opening day in their Sheffield Shield contest.
Neil-Smith made his firstclass debut for the Tigers at the WACA in in 2019, taking 3/81 off 17 overs in the first innings and 2/90 in the second.
On the opening day of this season’s match, the right-arm medium-pacer took the prize scalps of Warriors Shaun Marsh, Hilton Cartwright, Josh Philippe, D’Arcy Short, as well as tail-ender Matthew Kelly.
WA was rolled for 238 off 88.1 overs, with fellowbowlers Peter
Siddle (2-53),
Gabe Bell
(2-44) and
Beau Webster
(1-34) taking care of the rest.
Meanwhile, former Test star Usman Khawaja snapped his recent form slump to post a crucial century on day three of Queensland’s Sheffield Shield clash with South Australia.
Khawaja, 34, managed only 45 runs across his first three innings of the summer, but just when his chances of earning a Test recall appeared to be fading, the Queensland skipper came up with a captain’s knock.
The Bulls had been on the back foot since their abysmal batting collapse on day one and needed a prolific second innings if they were any chance of holding the Redbacks at bay.
Enter Khawaja. His steady partnership with Marnus Labuschagne yielded 77 runs but Khawaja was undeterred when the star batter was sent packing. On a wicket much less batter-friendly than Karen Rolton Oval, where his side played its last Shield match, the skipper brought up his 31st first class hundred.
At stumps, Khawaja was unbeaten on 158 runs, which was more than the entire Queensland XI. Jimmy Peirson’s 89 helped the Bulls to finish the day at 4-370, 242 runs ahead of South Australia.