Mitch Marsh fell agonisingly short of a century but not before ensuring Western Australia would post a competitive first innings total on Saturday in the Sheffield Shield match against Queensland at the WACA Ground.

Marsh was out for 96 just before lunch on the second day after two more rain delays held up play during the morning session by 23 and 30 minutes respectively, and the Warriors were 7-226 at the interval.

Marsh and Sam Whiteman rescued WA from a horror start on Friday to put on a partnership of 151 before Whiteman was out for 61 and then Marsh for 96.

Marsh, the younger brother of Shaun who made just six on Friday, looked to be cruising towards a second Shield century in his 31st first-class match but he appeared to be getting a little nervous as lunch approached.

He miscued a couple of attempted big hits from Michael Neser’s bowling and then was caught on the crease off Luke Feldman, and only managed to edge the ball to former teammate Luke Pomersbach’s waiting hands at second slip to fall four runs short of the century.

However, he and Whiteman took WA from a perilous 5-47 with Ashton Agar not out on 17 and Nathan Coulter-Nile yet to score.

Feldman (2-56), Ben Cutting (2-50) and Neser (2-62) all have two wickets apiece for Queensland while captain James Hopes has also bowled well for 1-28 from 16 overs.

However, play has been marred by news that former WA skipper and opening batsman Marcus North’s older brother Lucas was killed in an accident in Perth on Friday.

Marcus North found out shortly after being dismissed for four on day one and was granted a leave of absence from the match with his place in the WA side taken by Luke Towers.