Sri Lankan great Tillakaratne Dilshan and Romanian cult figure Pavel Florin part of successful Southern Smash

The fourth edition of Albany’s Southern Smash has proved a big hit with players and spectators. Hundreds of punters watched as the Inswing Ignition beat the Arc Infrastructure Aces in Friday’s grand final. Sri Lankan great Tillakaratne Dilshan and Romanian cult figure Pavel Florin were the headline acts of this year’s Smash and they both proved to be crowd favourites. Despite the last minute withdrawal of former Australian batter Mark Cosgrove due to family reasons, regional WA’s premier T20 competition was another great success. Dilshan impressed with bat and ball at the age of 46 in his first taste of the competition and was part of the successful Ignition side while Florin, famous for his distinctive bowling action, was adored by fans and players alike. He took to the field for the Retravision Warriors and snared the wicket of Iszak Milentis on day two. Florin was thrown into the Smash under-21 exhibition game on Thursday night and took part in a special super over against a sponsor on Friday in the lead-up to the grand final. Dilshan’s Ignition and the Arc Infrastructure Aces, spearheaded by former Perth Scorcher Jaron Morgan, were both undefeated after a thrilling day of action on Thursday. Multiple games went down to the wire, including one that was decided in a super over. Morgan smashed 94 in the Aces’ 53-run win over the Elders Avengers in round one while Dilshan made 23 runs in the Ignition’s 53-run triumph over the Albany Finance Fury. The highlight of round one was a super over between the Retravision Warriors and the Camtrans Bulldogs. Teen sensation Corey Wasley whacked 63 to help the Bulldogs set their rivals 140 to win. WA Second XI player Joel Curtis had the Warriors cruising to victory with a blistering 82 from 50 balls before he fell to Ben Payne. However the Warriors couldn’t get a run from the final couple of deliveries and Julian Crudeli was run out on the last ball as they finished 6-139 in reply. Curtis and Nathan Crudeli were dismissed in a dismal super over for the Warriors who made only four runs and Wasley and Michael Tassone needed just three balls to hand their side victory. The Ignition then knocked the Warriors out of final contention with a tense two-wicket win later in the day. It came down to the final over with the Ignition needing seven runs to win and James Bottomley (7no) and Tyler King (6no) securing a famous win as King drove a ball back past Nathan Crudeli for a boundary to pass the total with one ball remaining. The Avengers had a five-wicket win over the Bulldogs in the other round two fixture, led by 48 from Claremont-Nedlands first grade captain Jacob Whiteaker, while the Aces were 10-wicket winners over the Fury thanks to 65no from Morgan. On Friday in the third round the Bulldogs made 7-189 batting first after a blistering half century from Jaxon Cornford and they went on to beat the Fury by 54 runs. However that was not enough to get them into the final as the Aces were nine-wicket winners over the Warriors and the Ignition defeated the Avengers by 42 runs. Florin was a much sought after figure as kids in the crowd spent time chatting with the Transylvanian icon, who also posed for photos and warmed up his bowling arm with them. He took part in various media interviews and posted plenty of pictures and videos of his time at the event on to his social media platforms.