After a Moises Henriques seemed to have batted Western Australia out of the Sheffield Shield 2013-14 final, Josh Hazlewood brought the title that much nearer for New South Wales with a devastating spell of five overs that broke the batting back.
The two sides had gone into the second day of the final without any one of the two teams really in front.
A couple of quick wickets early on the second day would have allowed Western Australia to restrict their opponents to a more manageable figure and given them a fair chance on a slow pitch.
The exact opposite of that happened.
Moises Henriques, who had started the day off on 24, went on to get to his second century this season. Even then, it seemed like it had only whetted his appetite and he looked to carry on his good work before being finally dismissed for 140.
What made it tougher for Western Australia was that the bowlers weren’t able to make frequent inroads at the other end either.
Steve O’Keefe chipped in with 41, Trent Copeland made 35 and Nathan Lyon continued to remain difficult to dislodge down the order adding 36 valuable runs too.
Unfortunately for the Warriors, the reverse swing which had been so prominent on the first day disappeared totally at the start of the second. Even the decision to take the second new ball did not result in much return, as New South Wales piled on 447 batting first.
Western Australia needed to survive only nine overs in order to try and start afresh from day three. In doing so they lost four wickets and in turn seemed to have almost conceded the title to the Blues.
Hazlewood breathed fire from the word go, getting rid of Cameron Bancroft and Marcus Harris off the first two balls of the innings.
While the hat-trick was averted, he also had Adam Voges snicking one to the slips, and when he was not bowling, he contributed to the wicket-taking with a direct hit that sent Marcus North packing.
Western Australia still have Shaun Marsh at the crease and he has overcome his early nerves to get off the mark and face 20 balls. If he can bat out the first one hour, he could look to continue in the same vein as he had in the second innings of their previous match against New South Wales.
However, Sam Whiteman and brother Mitchell will need to give him solid company and get big scores themselves to even think of competing with their opposition – forget winning from here.
Join me for this Sheffield Shield final on Sunday and you can follow the live score of this game from 10:30am local time and post your comments below.
Broken-hearted Toy
Guest
He's a poor commentator. I don't think he realises it's not for a NSW only stream. None of them seem to for that matter.
Broken-hearted Toy
Guest
Fne innings from Mitch Marsh looked like he was on a different pitch to the others, shame the tail couldn't hang around to help him get his ton. Got really lucky with that duffed run-out though. Ashton Agar's batting appears to have completely lost any value. He's just swinging away thoughtlessly., Great to see Josh Hazelwood doing so well. He has to keep his face in front of the selectors.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Steven Smith for the Blues and Adam Voges for Western Australia.
Alex
Guest
Great work mate, who's captaining the Blues?
Tom from Perth
Guest
Big day's work Suneer! Keep up the good effort mate; I'll see you for the T20.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Another day dominated by New South Wales, with only the Marsh brothers offering some resistance when Western Australia batted. They were bowled out for 180 by Josh Hazlewood, who took six and while WA retaliated with a couple of quick wickets of their own, Smith and Rohrer have taken them out of that mire. The Blues will resume at 2/46 on the day four of the Sheffield Shield final. That will be it from me for now, but I will be back for the live blog of the World T20 2014 game between Australia and Pakistan in about two hours and a bit from now. Thanks for following this blog.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Three singles off the last over of the day and with that, it's the end of play today. Lead's 313 for New South Wales, with eight wickets in the sheds.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Last over of the day this and North will continue.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Hogan's done with the 11th over of the day, the penultimate one. 2/43.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Marcus North has taken over the attack for an over today. He's bowling the 10th of the day, and sends down a maiden. 2/42 in 10. Lead of 309.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Rohrer continues to hit them away... ...was a poor, half-volley, on his pads and flicked away through mid-wicket for a four! Nice batting. 2/39 in the 9th
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Michael Hogan will take up the bowling now. Three more overs to go today.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Cut away through the point region for a four! Rohrer's gotten into a hitting mode and taken his score on to 16. Smith's on 18 and the Blues are 2/35 in 9.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
They are picking up the runs easily here. Moved on to 2/30. And it's very evident they are looking to score, not looking to play defensively even after those first two wickets. Lead's 297.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
A single off the last ball of the Behrendorff over followed by another off the first ball of the Duffield over. Rohrer moves up to 12... ...and Smith clips one away for three. 2/19 in the 6th, lead's up to 288.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Neatly tapped away through the covers for a four! It was over-pitched by Behrendorff and Rohrer got nicely into position and gets it to the fence. Already some more signs of intent by NSW. 2/13 in 4.1
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Couple of runs for Smith and then a dab through the slips for three to Ben Rohrer. 2/9 in the 3rd
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Couple of runs through the slips cordon, in fact between the slip and the gully fielder, for Smith. 2/6 in the 3rd
JGK
Roar Guru
WA are back in it!
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
And here we go, second one goes and Duffield gets his first. Nic Maddinson has another failure, as he nicks one to Marsh. Gone for a duck. Things are happening suddenly in this one, 2/4 in 2, with the lead at 271.