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Day-night Sheffield Shield cricket makes its way to the WACA ground on Sunday, as the Western Warriors do battle with the New South Wales Blues for the second straight round. Join The Roar for scores from the clash starting at 5pm (AEDT), 2pm local time.
Looking at the ladder coming into this game, both teams appear to be struggling slightly for wins and form. The Blues have won three of their six games to sit in fourth place, while the Warriors have only won two, sitting in fifth.
That round six match, the first ever Sheffield Shield match to be played in New Zealand ended in a draw, with neither team really able to establish their dominance over the match at any point.
New South Wales would bat first, making 402 with Kurits Patterson top-scoring on 75. Unfortunately from a Blues perspective, many of their batsmen, in fact all apart from Ben Rohrer and Peter Nevill made starts, but none were able to go on with it and convert for a century.
David Moody was the pick of the bowlers with three wickets, but it was tough going for the Warriors.
The Warriors would then go onto build a first innings lead of 88 runs, scoring 491. Adam Voges continued his incredible run of form, scoring 149. Rather concerning though for the Warriors, is that Voges won’t take part in this match, as he is on Test match duty, and Sam Whiteman was the only other batsmen to pass 50, scoring 93.
For the Blues, it was Doug Bollinger, Trent Copeland and Nathan Lyon with three wickets a piece.
From there, with limited time left the Blues ended the match at 5 for 155, with batsmen falling far too often, and leaving confidence down coming into this game.
The key to this game is going to be the pink-ball and how each team handles it. Joel Paris and Nathan Rimmington will pose as a big threat for the Warriors, while Bollinger and Copeland will do the same for the Blues.
In round one, during the last day-night round, New South Wales defeated the Southern Redbacks away from home by 215 runs with a large contingent of Test players, while Western Australia defeated Tasmania by 162 runs, also away from home.
Prediction
Neither team looked like winning the last match played, but with the pink ball in use and what should be a fiery WACA pitch, it is hard to see another draw between the sides. The toss will be important, but the Blues’ pace bowling battery should get the job done for them in a close one away from home.
Be sure to join The Roar for scores from this day-night Sheffield Shield clash starting at 5pm (AEDT) and don’t forget to add your own comments as the action unfolds.
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde