Henriques, Hazlewood put NSW in control
AAP
Three quick wickets to NSW paceman Josh Hazlewood and a classy ton from teammate Moises Henriques have delivered a killer one-two blow to Western Australia’s Sheffield Shield title hopes.
Henriques hit a classy 140 off 316 balls to steer NSW to a first innings total of 447 at Canberra’s Manunka Oval, with WA reduced to 4-15 in reply at the end of day two.
It was going to take a monumental effort to overshadow Henriques’s day two efforts with the bat, but Hazlewood (3-13) did just that when he took three wickets in his first ten deliveries, then backed it up with a sharp run-out to send Shield player of the year Marcus North back to the sheds.
His first two wickets came from the first two balls of the innings, dismissing Cam Bancroft caught behind then trapping Marcus Harris lbw.
It was the first time a team has suffered two golden ducks in an innings in Sheffield Shield final history.
Hazlewood’s next over was just as fiery, and he claimed the key scalp of WA captain Adam Voges (7) courtesy of a sharp catch by Ryan Carters at third slip.
NSW’s position is a huge turnaround after a day one five-wicket collapse had reduced them to 6-189, forcing Henriques to dig in alongside fellow all-rounder Stephen O’Keefe for a seventh-wicket stand of 90.
The partnership came undone in the first session of day two with O’Keefe on 41 when left-arm WA paceman Jason Behrendorff (4-95) got a tight lbw decision to fall his way.
Henriques was finally dismissed after 399 minutes in the middle when he skied a delivery from WA paceman Ryan Duffield (3-126).
Tailender Trent Copeland (35) made a valuable contribution before he was caught behind, and Australian Test spinner Nathan Lyon stuck around for another not out innings on his way to 36.
Besides the five-wicket burst courtesy of some reverse swing at about the 60 over mark, the Warriors lacked penetration throughout the NSW batting innings, with their key strike weapon Nathan Coulter-Nile in Bangladesh for the Twenty20 World Cup.
-AAP