Last Updated on 2 hours ago by Charbel Coorey
Harry Hoekstra has made a magnificent start to his Sheffield Shield career, scoring 45 off 122 balls with the bat before dismissing Jake Weatherald in his first over.
The 20-year-old came in at number nine for Victoria against two-time defending champions South Australia. His team was in trouble at 173/8 before he and Doug Warren (20 off 95 balls) combined for a 62-run stand in nearly 30 overs.
The duo’s partnership was only cut short due to a dubious umpiring decision. Warren was given out LBW off the bowling of Brendan Doggett, but the ball looked to be going down the legside.
Harry Hoekstra produces gem to dismiss Jake Weatherald after facing 122 deliveries
After top-scoring with the bat, Hoekstra struck with his sixth delivery. He produced a peach to remove Weatherald, who is back at South Australia and vying to win back his Test place.
The left-arm pace bowler got the ball to swing away and kick off the surface, catching Weatherald’s glove on the way through to fellow debutant Liam Blackford who donned the gloves.
Speaking after the day’s play at Junction Oval, the 20-year-old was thrilled with dismissing a player of Weatherald’s experience.
“It probably still hasn’t kicked in to be honest,” Hoekstra said, as quoted by cricket.com.au. “I’m still probably pinching myself a little bit.
“You’d take Jake Weatherald as your first first-class wicket any day of the week. The adrenaline’s probably still going a bit from when I was batting, so I was just lucky enough to take that through and bowled a decent enough ball there to get him out.”
Earlier, South Australia won the toss and sent Victoria in. Test hopefuls Campbell Kellaway (13) and Oliver Peake (32) looked promising, but couldn’t mount anything substantial. Kellaway clipped a legstump half volley straight to square leg, before Peake was bowled shouldering arms on the stroke of lunch.
Liam Blackford, who scored a superb century in the One Day Cup last month, looked compact and composed on debut. He looked largely untroubled during his 67-ball stay before Nathan McAndrew ran him out thanks to a smart piece of fielding off his own bowling.
South Australia finished day one on 4/1 off eight overs. Seeing out the new ball will be key on a surface that settled down once the ball got older.
