Sheffield Shield: Western Australia clinch 17th title, defeat Victoria by nine wickets in final

Perth [Australia], March 26 (ANI): A century from Ashton Turner and brilliant spells from pacers Matthew Kelly, Lance Morris and Joel Paris helped Western Australia defeat Victoria in the final of the Sheffield Shield 2022-23 by nine wickets to clinch their 17th title on Sunday.
Western Australia, led by Sam Whiteman have pulled off an upset by defeating the 32-time champions in the summit clash. Sheffield Shield is the top first-class domestic cricket competition in Australia.
Victoria started day three of the match at 122/6 with Mitchell Perry 7*, Will Sutherland 40* unbeaten at the crease.
Perry and Sutherland added 23 runs to their previous day's score. Kelly started the fall of wickets for the day by dismissing Perry for 20. Victoria was 145/7.
Sutherland brought up his half-century. But Kelly continued his domination over Victoria batting, dismissing Fergus O'Neill for a golden duck to reduce them to 145/8.
Todd Murphy and Sutherland put on a sixty-run stand for the ninth wicket. Sutherland brought up his half-century.
Aaron Hardie dismissed Murphy to break the partnership, sending him back for 26 with the assistance of the safe hands of Lance Morris. Victoria was eventually bundled out for 210 runs in 60.2 overs and had a lead of 92 runs over Western Australia. Skipper Peter Handscomb also contributed a knock of 52 runs to this total.
Kelly was the pick of the bowlers for WA with 4/41 in his 16 overs. Joel Paris took 3/55 in his 18 overs. Aaron Hardie took 2/29 in his 8.2 overs while Lance Morris picked up 1/69 in his 10 overs.
In the chase of 93 runs, WA skipper Sam Whiteman was trapped lbw by Scott Boland for a duck. WA was 5/1 at that point.
Then, opener Cameron Bancroft (39*) and Teague Wyllie (43*) stitched an unbeaten 88-run stand for the second wicket to power WA to their 17th title.
Ashton was given the 'Man of the Match' for his century.
Earlier in their first innings, Western Australia was bundled out for 315 runs. Turner's knock of 128 runs in 227 balls pushed WA to a huge total. Knocks from Aaron Hardie (45), Joel Paris (31) and Josh Philippe (28) were crucial as well.
Will Sutherland was the pick of the bowlers for Victoria, with a spell of 5/75 in 28 overs. Scott Boland (2/40), Matthew Short (2/3) and Fergus O'Neill (1/70) were among the wickets as well.
With this total, WA had a 120-run first innings lead over Victoria, who could score only 195 in their first innings. Ashley Chandrasinghe (46), Matthew Short (36) and Mitchell Perry (33) were notable contributors for Victoria while batting.
Morris was the pick of the bowlers for WA, taking 3/53 in his 20 overs. Paris and Kelly also took two wickets while Corey Rocchiccioli took a wicket.
Brief Scores: WA: 315 and 93/1 (Teague Wyllie 43*, Cameron Bancroft 39*, Scott Boland 1/27) won against Victoria: 195 and 210 (Will Sutherland 83, Peter Handscomb 52, Matthew Kelly 4/41) by nine wickets. (ANI)