Thursday, September 20, 2012
New South Wales record a emphatic win over Western Australia
New South Wales gained a sweet slice of revenge by crushing Western Australia by eight wickets inside three days in the Sheffield Shield clash at the WACA Ground.
The Blues were left licking their wounds in February when they lost to WA by an innings and 323 runs in Perth.
Warriors opener Liam Davis cracked an unbeaten 303 in that match, and caused NSW some nervy moments on Thursday as he made his way to 73 in WA's second innings.
But it was to no avail as WA were bowled out for 248 just before tea on day three, leaving NSW with a meagre victory target of 108.
And with increasing showers forecast for the final day, the Blues made sure they knocked off the runs swiftly, with opener Peter Nevill (65no) and Nic Maddinson (30) the main contributors as the visitors finished at 2-108 in 24.1 overs.
Blues paceman Trent Copeland, who returned figures of 2-54 and 4-57, was named man-of-the-match.
Despite losing the likes of Phillip Hughes, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Hauritz, Simon Katich, Brett Lee and Phil Jaques last summer, NSW encountered few problems in their season-opening trip to Perth, beating WA in both the Shield and one-day matches.
Test skipper Michael Clarke scored 78 in NSW's first-innings total of 358, with Moises Henriques (78) and Steve O'Keefe (74) also producing important knocks.
Left-arm paceman Doug Bollinger collected 3-55 in WA's first innings, while Copeland ripped through WA's top order in the second innings.
Copeland, who played three Tests for Australia last year, snared the scalps of Marcus Harris (10), Marcus North (11) and Mitch Marsh (10) to leave WA in all sorts of trouble at 4-68.
Davis, who cracked 12 fours and two sixes, and former Tasmania wicketkeeper Tom Triffitt (51) put up stiff resistance for the Warriors, while Mitchell Johnson (28) and Nathan Rimmington (43 not out off 54 balls) provided some fireworks at the death.
But WA's total wasn't nearly enough to trouble the Blues, who next take on Tasmania in a Shield clash at Bankstown Oval, starting Wednesday.
Johnson, who returned figures of 2-88 in the first innings, couldn't get a breakthrough on Thursday as he finished with 0-16 from four overs.
"It's nice to get a win in our first game,'' said Clarke.
"I don't think NSW have performed as well as we would have liked over the past couple of years.
"But we've had a really big pre-season, the boys all trained really hard.
"It's set up the summer for us.''
WA skipper Marcus North conceded his team were outplayed over the three days.
"We were chasing the game. NSW put us under a lot of pressure with the ball,'' North said.
"NSW's bowlers put us under a lot of pressure and exposed our middle order too early.
"Looking at the game, especially in these conditions, if you just give an inch a day, the end result looks pretty bad.''
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