WA’s Rimmington slays Bulls at the WACA

Veteran paceman Nathan Rimmington continued his hot start to the season to put Western Australia in the box seat against Queensland in the twilight Sheffield Shield clash at the WACA Ground.

A week after being named man of the match against Tasmania, Rimmington snared career-best figures of 5-27 with the experimental pink ball to help skittle the Bulls for 163.

In reply, WA moved to 1-63 by stumps, with Cameron Bancroft (28no) and Michael Klinger (20no) encountering few problems under lights after opener Marcus Harris fell for four.

A crowd of 1259 turned out for the first day-night Shield match at the WACA since 1999.

Chris Hartley top-scored for Queensland with 48, but the rest struggled to fire despite having the advantage of batting during daylight hours.

Rimmington was the chief destroyer, with the former Bull snaring three wickets in five balls during the first session to spark the rot.

“Obviously it’s a little bit different coming in with a pink ball, but we were able to get it swinging,” Rimmington said.

“Last week with the red ball it swung until the 45th over, but today it swung all innings.

“It definitely didn’t go bigger or around corners, but it was just swinging for longer.”

Left-armer Jason Behrendorff (3-40) claimed the key wicket of James Hopes (22), while Michael Hogan chipped in with two wickets.

WA claimed 1.5 bonus points for taking at least nine wickets within 100 overs.

Queensland crept to 1-42 after winning the toss but they were looking for answers once Rimmington was introduced into the attack.

Greg Moller (19) became Rimmington’s first victim when his wild slash out wide only resulted in an edge, and Peter Forrest (0) was sent packing next ball when he was struck on the pads after failing to offer a shot.

Rimmington’s hat-trick ball was a fizzer – slow and wide – but he made amends next over by catching the edge of Marnus Labuschagne’s bat (21).

The journeyman claimed 13 wickets during WA’s One-Day Cup triumph last month, and said he was happy with his form.

“I’m the sort of bowler that needs to bowl a lot of balls,” Rimmington said.

“This winter I headed over to the UK and played a couple of games for Hampshire.

“I probably didn’t expect a chance at Shield cricket straight away.

“But there’s been a few injuries, Nathan Coulter-Nile got called up and Mitch Marsh was away, so I got a chance and just tried to make the most of it.”

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