Fiery welcome for Harry Hoekstra as Vics trail Tasmania in Hobart

HERO of Victoria’s first effort in the field against Tasmania in Hobart this week, Koonwarra-Leongatha RSL’s Harry Hoekstra, got a fiery welcome to the pitch from the Tassie Tigers’ paceman Mitch Owen.

Ducking under a rising ball for the first delivery faced, Hoekstra got a decent rap on the back of the helmet with the result that the doctor came out on the field.

But all was well, with the commentators from cricket.com.au offering their encouragement.

“He’ll be right, Harry, he comes from Leongatha!”

And it wasn’t long before Hoekstra was off the mark, initially with a streaky lofted shot over one of the Tassie fieldsmen before smacking a nice cover drive off big Gabe Bell for four.

Hoekstra replaced Fergus O’Neill at the crease earlier than he might have liked after Victoria lost wickets at regular intervals after going to lunch one down with one hundred-plus on the board.

But the local boy had his captain Will Sutherland up the other end, in only his second shield game, and once again looked the part, as he did in the first innings against South Australia, top scoring with 45.

There was another streaky shot off the shoulder of the bat and over the slips for another four, taking him to 10 off 11 balls but in between there were signs of a good defence.

His early support for Sutherland was enough to get the Vics up to 199, in reply to Tasmania’s 241, before Hoekstra succumbed to Tasmania’s outfield trap and he was out for 10 off 13 deliveries, not exactly what the team was looking for but with Todd Murphy coming in, there still hope they’d be able to polish off the Tasmanian lead.

But it wasn’t to be, with Murphy out in short order for four with the Vics looking at a deficit on the first innings.

Hoekstra has so far had a very good, if not perfect match, taking 5/46 off 20 overs, along the way to ripping the heart out of the Tasmanian top order but he dropped an outfield catch looking into the sun and the score of 10 lowers his first-class average.

So, there's room for improvement but as far as his bowling is concerned, he's already made the cricketing world sit up and take notice.

Someone said "a ready replacement when Mitchell Starc retires".

After both teams have batted on the Bellerive Oval deck, it appears to be favouring the bowlers more than the batsmen and the Vics will be hoping Hoekstra can repeat the dose in the Tigers’ second innings.

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