AUSTRALIAN tourist Glenn Pepper took two wickets and scored 26 runs to help the Yadrana cricket team win their first-ever competition yesterday.
Writing another chapter in history, Yadrana became the first team to beat Army in the Suva Cricket Association competition in the past four years.
Yesterday at Albert Park, Yadrana beat Army by 11 runs to win the first round of the SCA competition.
Pepper was on holiday when he heard of a competition and Yadrana senior player Joeli Matayawa, who is also the national coach, gave him a chance to taste the local competition because Pepper leaves the country tomorrow.
Yadrana batted first and scored 128 runs in their 20 overs with Vueta Vuiyasawa top scoring with 41 runs.
In reply Army were all out for 117 runs and their top run scorer was Jone Sevou with 48.
Yadrana team captain Samuela Draunivudi said the efforts of Pepper and all the players were evident in their victory.
"This is the first time we have beaten Army and it was a good team effort that gave us the win," he said.
The side is relatively new as this was only their second season in the competition. However, most of their players have played for their home districts in the past.
"It was an exciting end to an exciting season, the efforts of our players did not go unrecognised because some of them are in the national squad that will be leaving for a tour of New Zealand at the end of the month," Draunivudi said.
Army team manager Akuila Nawai said they lost to a better team and they now looked forward to round two of the competition that begins next week.
"This is a sign for us to do better in the next round of competition and win back our champion status," he said.