Blues on song as Warriors stumble

New South Wales has taken control after an intriguing opening day of the Weet-Bix Sheffield Shield match against Western Australia in Perth today.

The Blues’ finished on 4-168 with Daniel Smith and Moises Henriques unbeaten after an all-round bowling performance earlier in the day rattled the home side Warriors for a meagre 131.

It was the Warriors lowest total since Victoria rolled them for 140 in Melbourne last season and their lowest at home for two years when NSW blasted them out for 99.

New South Wales secured the two points on offer for the first innings through the batting prowess of Phil Hughes, Usman Khawaja and Phil Jaques, while Smith consolidated before Brad Knowles chimed in for two quick wickets of Usman Khawaja and Ben Rohrer late in the day.

After bowling the Warriors out about an hour into the second session, Jaques and Hughes guided New South Wales through to the tea break without loss at 0-50, making what looked hard in the morning and early afternoon sessions look easy as both picked off the sluggish bowling.

After tea, the Blues’ openers continued to punish the bowlers with six fours’ from the first seven scoring shots – moving the total to 77 when Jaques glided the ball to Shaun Marsh at second slip.

Hughes, meanwhile, carried on and posted his 50 in 71 mins off only 60 balls before he drove straight to Justin Coetzee at mid off.

The scoring rate slowed dramatically as Khawaja and Smith toiled hard towards the first innings points target.

Earlier, New South Wales won the toss and elected to bowl first in mild overcast yet fine conditions, a decision that proved fruitful with two wickets in the first hour, and five before the lunch break.

Stuart Clark, skippering the Blues for the first time in a first-class fixture, snared the opening wicket of Luke Towers (lbw for 4) at the end of the sixth over.

Fellow opening bowler Doug Bollinger, who was released from the Test squad in Brisbane, overstepped early on with four no balls inside his first three overs, including two in his second over.

Youngster Josh Hazlewood came on at first change and picked up Wednesday’s one-day centurion Shaun Marsh with a ball that nipped back through the gate to leave the home side struggling somewhat at 2-29.

Worse was to come for the home side as Adam Voges, leading the Warriors in the absence of Marcus North, edged to Steven Smith at second slip in Henriques’ opening over – continuing a run of low scores against NSW in the Shield competition.

Bollinger returned after a spell and claimed Robinson caught behind, while Henriques snared his second wicket when he bowled Theo Doropoulos in the last over before lunch.

Western Australia were reeling at the main interval on 5-56 with Mitch Marsh in his first-class debut unbeaten on 12 and keeper-batsman Luke Ronchi poised to join him.

After the break, both Ronchi and Marsh survived streaky shots that could have been caught to guide the Warriors closer to the hundred.

In the shadows of that mark, and after plundering 17 quick-fire runs, Ronchi edged through to keeper Daniel Smith, who also caught Justin Coetzee three overs later when Clark collected his second wicket.

Mitch Marsh though took to the bowlers with a stylish half-century, cracking nine fours and a six along the way.

However, Bollinger ended the innings with two quick wickets, while Michael Hogan ran himself out looking for a third run after cover driving to the deep but not finding the rope.

The second day is poised to resume at 10:30am local (AWST) time tomorrow morning.

Western Australia - First Innings
W ROBINSON c D.Smith b Bollinger 22
L TOWERS lbw b Clark 4
S MARSH b Hazlewood 3
A VOGES c S.Smith b Henriques 2
M MARSH not out 59
T DOROPOULOS b Henriques 3
L RONCHI c D.Smith b Hazlewood 17
J COETZEE c D.Smith b Clark 1
S MAGOFFIN c Jaques b Bollinger 0
B KNOWLES c D.Smith b Bollinger 2
M HOGAN run out (D.Smith) 2
Extras (5b, 4lb, 6nb, 1wd) 16
Total (all out for; 40.2 overs) 131

Fall: 1-20 (Towers), 2-29 (S.Marsh), 3-39 (Voges), 4-39 (Robinson), 5-56 (Doropoulos), 6-99 (Ronchi), 7-114 (Coetzee), 8-123 (Magoffin), 9-129 (Knowles), 10-131 (Hogan).

Bowling:
D Bollinger 10.2 - 2 - 33 - 2 (6nb)
S Clark 12 - 5 - 31 - 2
J Hazlewood 9 - 2 - 31 - 2
M Henriques 8 - 1 - 27 - 2
S Smith 1 - 1 - 0 - 0

New South Wales – First Innings
P JAQUES c S.Marsh b Hogan 28
P HUGHES c Coetzee b Magoffin 58
U KHAWAJA c Ronchi b Knowles 39
D SMITH not out 22
B ROHRER lbw b Knowles 4
M HENRIQUES not out 11
Extras (0b, 2lb, 4nb, 0wd) 6
Total (4 wkts for; 49 overs) 168

To Bat: D Warner, S Smith, J Hazlewood, S Clark, D Bollinger.

Fall: 1-77 (Jaques), 2-104 (Hughes), 3-141 (Khawaja), 4-145 (Rohrer).

Bowling:
S Magoffin 14 - 5 - 36 - 1 (1nb)
M Hogan 13 - 5 - 41 - 1
B Knowles 12 - 4 - 63 - 2 (2nb)
J Coetzee 8 - 1 - 19 – 0
T Doropoulos 2 - 0 - 7 – 0

Match Status: Stumps Day One, New South Wales lead by 37 runs.

Toss: New South Wales, fielded first
12th men: M Hogan (WA), G Lambert (NSW)
Umpires: B Oxenford, P Wilson
Venue: WACA Ground, Perth.

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