Lara still darling of the young fans

PERTH. A bumper crowd has packed Perth’s Aquinas College to watch some of the greats of past and players of the present as the Perth Scorchers beat the Australian Legends by 50 runs in the WA Festival of Cricket Twenty20. The match pitted the KFC T20 Big Bash League reigning champions Scorchers against an all-star Legends XI led by Adam Gilchrist, but it was the youth of Ashton Turner that stole the show in a match that featured West Indies champion Brian Lara and Australian legends Dean Jones, Andrew Symonds, Andy Bichel and Michael Kasporwicz. Turner blasted 75 from 38 balls in a knock that included four fours and six sixes, taking Symonds and Bichel out of the ground on several occasions. The 21-year-old capped off the day with the prize wicket of state and BBL coach Langer, though not with his best delivery, securing the wicket with a floating full toss that the batsman top-edged to fall for nine. A spectacular one-handed grab from evergreen veteran Brad Hogg removed Gilchrist for one, much to the dismay of the enthusiastic crowd, but the keeper’s wicket brought Lara to the crease.
The West Indian struggled for timing early, relying on the pace of the bowlers to guide and glide his way into his innings before upping the ante in the final stages to bring up his fifty and remain unbeaten on 51 as the autograph-hunting crowd members invaded the field. The trial match was the first hit out for the new Scorchers recruits.