Western Australia’s top order have backed up spinner Ashton Agar’s five-wicket haul to be 1-75 at tea on day two of the crucial Sheffield Shield match with NSW in Canberra.
NSW have one foot in the door for next week’s final after claiming first innings points with a 104-run lead in the top-of-table clash, but the Warriors have since started clawing back that deficit.
They’ll be desperate to maintain that momentum, as they were locked with South Australia and NSW on 26 points heading into this final round.
Having averaged 70 this season, WA batsman Marcus North (31 not out) bounced back from his first innings duck to help put his side to be 29 runs behind NSW.
Spinner Stephen O’Keefe picked up the wicket of WA opener Cam Bancroft (17) with a sharp catch by skipper Steve Smith at slip, while first-drop Marcus Harris remains unbeaten on 22.
It’s a huge turnaround for WA, whose top five batsmen scraped together just 14 runs on a crazy first session on Tuesday, with the Manuka Oval pitch proving both difficult and slow to score on.
The Warriors began rebounding from their miserable first innings total of 82 early on Wednesday when they claimed six wickets in the first session to bowl NSW out for 186.
And while it won’t be noted on the scorecard, Agar’s second first-class five-wicket haul (5-74) came with a large dose of luck.
His third wicket involved an extraordinary catch at short leg, with NSW batsman Kurtis Patterson (44) slog sweeping directly into Bancroft, who somehow managed to clutch onto the ball.
The two-Test tweaker then finished off the innings with Josh Hazlewood and Doug Bollinger caught on the boundary rope.
WA left-handed paceman Jason Behrendorff (2-37) got things rolling early on the morning of day two, finding some good swing to dismiss both keeper Peter Nevill (8) and all-rounder Sean Abbott (4).