Wednesday, 22 February 2012
New South Wales look poised to earn a Ryobi Cup bonus-point victory over Western Australia on Wednesday despite making hard work of a modest run chase at the WACA Ground.
The Blues were 5-113 at the 25-over mark of their innings, needing only a further 39 runs to reach their target of 152 and earn their fourth win of a disappointing campaign.
Under-pressure Test wicketkeeper Brad Haddin recovered from his pair of ducks in the Sheffield Shield match between the two sides by scoring 32 off 39 before Phil Hughes (47 not out off 56) steadied the innings.
Hughes was running out of partners though when two quick wickets to all-rounder Nathan Coulter-Nile (3-34 off nine overs) had the Blues in trouble, but Ben Rohrer (two not out off 11) helped to stabilise.
The visitors need to score at just 2.6 runs per over to win with a bonus point, while their required rate to just win was less than two.
Mitchell Starc, playing his first game since he was dropped from Australia's Commonwealth Bank Series squad, had earlier put NSW in control by taking 4-39 as WA's top and middle orders crumbled to be bowled out for just 151.
Debutant paceman Chris Tremain (2-32 off 10) also impressed, with Coulter-Nile (53 off 70) preventing the hosts from further embarrassment by helping them partially recover from 6-62.
Shaun Marsh's lean run continued as he fell to Starc for five and the rest of the top six didn't fare much better.
The home side always faced an uphill battle to defend the modest target, as the only time a team had defended a score of less than 170 in a one-day domestic match at the WACA was the 1976 'Miracle Match', but Haddin's explosive batting made an upset even more unlikely.
Usman Khawaja (four), Simon Katich (zero), Steven Smith (14) and Nic Maddinson (two) all fell cheaply for the Blues.
Michael Beer (1-12 off four) and Jason Behrendorff (1-28 off four) were WA's other wicket-takers.
Behrendorff claimed the first breakthrough when Khawaja edged through to departing wicketkeeper Luke Ronchi, but the paceman came in for punishment soon after, with Haddin blasting 22 runs off one of his overs.
Hughes edged between Ronchi and first slip Travis Birt when he was on 16, but the Warriors took the second scalp an over later when a Beer delivery kept straight and clean bowled Haddin.
Katich was caught in the deep trying to late cut a Coulter-Nile deliver before Smith was caught behind for 14 and Maddinson bowled for two, but the Warriors still faced a massive challenge to get back in the game.