State all-rounder stars with bat and ball as South Sandy crushes Lindisfarne in 50-over final

Sharks player Simon Milenko has shown how dangerous he can be with the white ball to lead South Hobart-Sandy Bay to Kookaburra Cup glory.

HE was barely sighted at the bowling crease during the BBL but Simon Milenko has shown how dangerous he can be with the white ball to lead South Hobart-Sandy Bay to Kookaburra Cup glory.

Milenko, who was left out of Tasmania’s Sheffield Shield squad, starred with a devastating double at Blundstone Arena yesterday as the Sharks consigned Lindisfarne to a second grand final defeat of the CTPL season.

The all-rounder contributed 45 from 49 balls with the bat in South-Sandy’s 213, before running through the Lightning’s middle order to finish with 4-25 in the 105-run victory.

In tandem with the continually impressive Kyle Wisniewski (2-13) and Hamish Kingston (2-20), the Sharks overpowered Lindisfarne’s chase, triggering collapses of 4-7 and 7-24 to kill the contest.

Kookaburra Cup final South Sandy v Lindisfarne at Blundstone Arena. Hamish Kingston of Sandy Bay with the ball. Picture: MATT THOMPSON

“We thought we might have been 20 or 30 runs short with the bat but as it turned out a pretty good effort with the ball from a couple of boys in particular which got us over the line,” said coach Matt Clark, who sacrificed his own spot in the XI after Gabe Bell was made available.

“He is a real luxury for us. Simon, he obviously can bat in the top four or five and comes on and bowls first change.

“As you can see today he contributed with both bat and ball … and Kyle has come on in leaps and bounds in the past couple of years, he has gone from a player who was probably in and out of the team a couple of years ago to being one of the first picked, even when we are at full strength.

“The plan was always if we could get a couple of wickets inside the first 10 overs, we felt we could put them on the back foot.”

The Sharks missed out on landing a bigger total when skipper Sean Willis (35), Milenko, Caleb Oakes (35) and Kingston (48) failed to convert strong starts, with Lindisfarne taking the last six wickets for 33 runs as Nathan Ellis (4-31) and Tom Briscoe (3-48) ran through the tail.

However the Lightning, who lost the T20 final to North Hobart, were unable to carry the momentum into the chase, losing key planks Mac Wright and Keegan Oates early.

[e-mail]