Warriors start shield season with a bang
It’s hard to keep an old dog down.
As Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts wiled away a pleasant spring afternoon watching cricket at the WACA Ground, Nathan Rimmington enjoyed his own day in the sun with a career-best haul.
While young pups like Jason Behrendorff and Joel Paris had been at the forefront of WA’s triumphant one-day campaign, and aspiring internationals Shaun Marsh and Nathan Coulter-Nile have been surging towards Australian honours, the veteran seamer has been plugging along in their wake.
Rimmington soon turns 33 and has battled to win a regular place in the WA team over the past two years.
But 13 wickets in six Matador Cup matches underlined his value with the ball and suggested he was ready to have an impact at Sheffield Shield level.
So it proved on the opening day against Tasmania when Rimmington’s 5-38 restricted the Tigers to 215. WA were 0-20 in reply.
The Warriors earned their first bonus points of the season when Rimmington claimed WA’s fifth wicket while his strikes to dismiss former Test batsmen George Bailey and Tim Paine were crucial to WA’s cause.
The recent emergence of WA’s pace youngsters has limited Rimmington’s opportunities but he soon proved the value of good control allied with incisive movement off the pitch and through the air to finish with his best return in a decade of shield action.
The dangerous Bailey was bowled for a patient 15, top scorer Jon Wells (37) was strangled down the legside while Dom Michael, whose painstaking 14 repaired some of the early damage, gave Sam Whiteman his third catch of the innings.
Paine’s sole shield century was his double at the WACA nearly a decade ago and he appeared on track for another substantial score during a sparkling 34 that included several luscious front-foot drives.
But he attempted one shot too many as Rimmington toiled into the sea breeze and dragged the attempted cover drive back onto his stumps.
The clatter of regular wickets denied Tasmania any chance to build the substantial total that Bailey would have anticipated when he elected to bat first.
It appeared to be a classic WACA surface. It offered reasonable movement early in the day but was easing towards a fine batting platform by the time Xavier Doherty and Sam Rainbird swung hard at the end.
Behrendorff relished the new ball assistance and trapped both openers in his first spell.
Ed Cowan was unhappy to be given out LBW for a duck as he pushed defensively at the left-armer, and Jordan Silk edged behind after a breezy 16.
Jordan Silk walks off after being dismissed for 16. Pic: Getty Images
