Rocchiccioli stars as WA roll Victoria in Shield clash

Spinner Corey Rocchiccioli has snared 5-67 to lift Western Australia to the opening-day honours in their crunch Sheffield Shield clash with Victoria at the WACA Ground.

Rocchiccioli's heroics helped skittle Victoria for 197, with WA ending the day at 1-10 following the dismissal of Sam Whiteman for a seven-ball duck. 

Cameron Bancroft (8no) and nightwatchman Rocchiccioli (2no) will resume at the crease on Sunday. 

Both sides entered the match needing to win to have any chance of finishing second and sealing a spot in the final against South Australia.

Aiding their cause were the opening-day results from the other two games.

Ladder leaders South Australia went to stumps at 4-359 against second-placed Queensland, while last-placed Tasmania have made a first-innings score in excess of 300 in their battle against third-placed NSW.

Victoria crashed to 3-20 on Saturday morning after losing the toss and being sent in to bat.

Marcus Harris was the first to fall when Cameron Bancroft took a sharp catch at second slip off the bowling of Cameron Gannon.

Blake Macdonald was bowled by an inswinger from Joel Paris, and Campbell Kellaway was sent packing lbw by a full Brody Couch delivery.

Oliver Peake (52 off 168 deliveries) and Peter Handscomb (48 off 147 balls) dug Victoria out of trouble with a patient 94-run stand.

But Handscomb's dismissal at the hands of Rocchiccioli sparked a collapse of 4-12 as Victoria slumped from 3-114 to 7-126.

Rocchiccioli snared three of the last four wickets to fall, with Gannon pulling off a spectacular one-handed catch at slip to dismiss last-man out Peter Siddle.

Paris ended the day with figures of 3-37 from 22 overs, while Rocchiccioli was influential in his 29.4 overs.

"It feels really good to be able to contribute to a first innings like that," Rocchiccioli said.

"The fast bowlers worked really hard down the other end.

"I would say it's evenly poised. We've got to bat really well tomorrow.

"They've got a classy bowling line-up, so we've got to hang in there in the morning and build from there."

Sheffield Shield standings 2024-25

Team	Matches played M	Wins W	Losses L	Drawn D	No results N/R	Deductions Ded.	Batting Bonus Bat	Bowling Bonus Bowl	Total points PTS
1 South Australia Men SA	9	6	1	2	0	0	5.46	8.3	51.76
2 Queensland Bulls QLD	9	3	3	3	0	0	7.5	8.3	36.8
3 NSW Men NSW	9	3	3	3	0	0	6.99	7.4	35.39
4 Western Australia Men WA	9	3	3	3	0	0	5.83	7.6	34.43
5 Victoria Men VIC	9	3	5	1	0	0	5.19	8.3	32.49
6 Tasmanian Tigers Men TAS	9	2	5	2	0	0	6.41	7.2	27.61

Legend

M: Matches played

W: Wins

L: Losses

D: Drawn

N/R: No results

Ded.: Deductions

Bat: Batting Bonus

Bowl: Bowling Bonus

PTS: Total points