Marcus North had Doug Bollinger’s measure but was then bizarrely run out to leave Western Australia at 3-140 in reply to NSW’s 344 at tea on Friday’s second day of the Sheffield Shield match at the WACA Ground.
WA’s innings began disastrously when Bollinger’s first ball trapped Cameron Bancroft plumb in front to leave the Warriors 1-0, but North and Marcus Harris steadied matters with a 107-run stand for the second wicket.
However, Harris was out for 49 and then North was run out for 69 to leave WA 204 behind NSW’s first-innings total with captain Adam Voges not out 14 and Mitchell Marsh on three.
Harris was looking comfortable at the crease before being caught behind by Peter Nevill off Sean Abbott with the score 2-107 but then North began to dominate and force Bollinger into some poor bowling with the former Test batsman taking full advantage.
However, North was struggling with his movement with a lower leg complaint and, suddenly, when on 69, the Shield’s leading run-scorer for the season was disappointingly run out by Abbott when he didn’t ground his bat.
Earlier, Jason Behrendorff collected his first career five-wicket haul finishing with 5-65 with NSW adding 3-53 in the morning session after being 7-291 on the first day with Ryan Carters scoring 104 and Ben Rohrer 77.
Handy runs to Abbott (34), Manjot Singh (12) and Bollinger (6 not out) helped NSW get well beyond 300.
As well as Behrendorff’s heroics with the ball, Mitchell Marsh finished with figures of 2-46 and Michael Hogan claimed 2-54.