Butterworth fires, Johnson falls
Luke Butterworth's four wickets rolled Western Australia for 176 before Tasmania battled to 5 for 142 at stumps on day one of the Sheffield Shield match at the WACA ground
ESPNcricinfo staff
11-Oct-2011
Luke Butterworth's four wickets rolled Western Australia for 176 before Tasmania battled to 5 for 142 at stumps on day one of the Sheffield Shield match at the WACA ground.
Mitchell Johnson was forced to leave the field with a rolled ankle while Ricky Ponting could make only 33 on an eventful day in the west. The Tigers captain, George Bailey, was dropped twice on his way to compiling an unbeaten 49.
The Warriors never quite recovered from being reduced to 3 for 41 as Butterworth cut through the top order in a manner reminiscent of his success in Tasmania's Shield-winning 2010-11 season. He pinned Liam Davis lbw before Marcus Harris and Marcus North edged deliveries angled across them.
Butterworth later accounted for Adam Voges, the only WA batsman to make a score of any great substance, before the innings petered out.
Tasmania's reply was kept in check by the WA seam bowler Michael Hogan, who started off by having Ed Cowan caught in the slips then adding the wickets of Nick Kruger and James Faulkner.
Johnson, who tipped the young paceman Nathan Coulter-Nile out of the WA XI for reasons of team balance, was dismissed cheaply and then bowled indifferently before he slipped in his delivery stride and walked gingerly from the field without finishing his seventh over.
Ponting looked in good touch, but failed to go on from his start, squeezing a catch off bat and pad to short leg from the bowling of the left-arm spinner Michael Beer.