Western Australia’s opening batsmen made a steady start in their quest to reduce the deficit against NSW on Saturday’s third day of the Sheffield Shield match in Sydney.
The Warriors are none for 24 at lunch, still 78 runs in arrears, with Marcus Harris not out 20 and Liam Davis on three.
The duo survived eight overs until the lunch break after NSW were earlier bowled out for 344, a lead of 102 runs on the first innings.
NSW began the day at 6-263 but soon lost allrounder Moises Henriques for 71, who became the third victim of Warriors paceman Nathan Coulter-Nile (3-89 from 27 overs).
But Steven O’Keefe and Trent Copeland dashed WA’s hopes of restricting their opponents to a small advantage with a handy 54-run partnership for the eighth wicket.
O’Keefe made 36 and Copeland smacked 39 from just 34 balls, while WA debutant Ashton Agar finished with 3-103.