Gutted Green falls agonisingly short of historic double

The despair that Cameron Green showed on falling painfully short of his maiden first-class double-hundred was compounded by his belief he had been incorrectly adjudged lbw for 197.

Green was the undeniable talking point from the Marsh Sheffield Shield fixture between Western Australia and New South Wales that ended a stodgy stalemate when rival captains agreed at tea on day four that no result could be achieved.

The 21-year-old allrounder's career-high innings briefly raised the prospect of a milestone he has never before reached in any form of cricket.

But his expectation turned to despair, which Green admits he struggled to hide as he left the field three short of the mark.

"A bit of both," Green said at game's end when asked if his response to his dismissal was born of anguish from coming so close to a career first or frustration at the umpire's decision.

"(I've) never made 200 before … so close.

"But I've had a good couple of hours to chill down and release my anger and disappointment.

"That's probably the innings I'm most proud of, especially how hard they came all day.

"I understand that the pitch was pretty flat and in the batters' favour, but they came pretty hard so I'll take a lot out of it."

Along with the plaudits being heaped upon him for compiling a career-best first-class score, Green appeared set to become the youngest ever to score a double century for WA across their 73 years in the Shield competition.

That honour belongs to his current teammate and Test-capped opener Cameron Bancroft who posted 211 (also against NSW) at the WACA Ground in 2014-15 at age 22 years and 117 days.

Green would have shaved almost a year from that benchmark had he been able to find an additional three runs before being adjudged lbw by umpire Darren Close, a decision that brought grief for the young batter who clearly believed he had hit the ball before it struck his pad.

He might also have been haunted by the lack of urgency he showed during the preceding hour, in which he scored just 12 runs from 60 deliveries faced as he played silent partner to the explosive hitting of fast bowler Matthew Kelly.

Having resumed unbeaten on 28, Kelly flayed the Blues attack and bludgeoned 61 from 43 balls including four boundaries and six sixes this morning to also record his highest first-class score.

Given the sluggish pitch at Gladys Elphick Park had yielded just 13 wickets across the first three days, it was clear that neither side held hopes of achieving a non-contrived result and, instead, WA opted to give their tail-enders some centre-wicket batting practice.

They were eventually bowled out for 534 (a lead of 91) from almost 168 overs, and after losing opener Daniel Hughes in the short session prior to lunch, the Blues cruised to 2-107 before the game was deemed beyond resurrection.

Prior to the premature conclusion, ex-Test batter Kurtis Patterson struck a bright 48 from 79 deliveries before he was dismissed trying to loft spinner Ashton Agar over the leg side.

Blues captain Peter Nevill admitted attempts to broker a last-day run chase with rival skipper Shaun Marsh had failed to materialise.

"Unfortunately we just couldn’t come to an agreement," he said.

"(We were) unable to force the result, so it's hard to take too much away from it.

"There were some encouraging performances from players on both sides, but unfortunately the contest between bat and ball wasn't too much of a contest.

"We did (discuss it), unfortunately we just couldn’t come to an agreement."

Nevill also relished the prospect of welcoming back Test spearhead Mitchell Starc for NSW's next match, now that the left-armer has completed quarantine requirements after Australia's recent while-ball tour to the UK and has been able to build-up his bowling workloads.

Starc's Test teammate Nathan Lyon sent down almost 50 overs in WA's innings, and while his figures of 2-141 reflected the benign nature of a pitch he used to curate, Nevill saw positive signs from his vantage point behind the stumps.

"I think Nathan bowled really well," Nevill said tonight.

"You can easily forget how long it's been since he's played cricket, so to get 40-odd overs into him …

"I think his pace and his shape and his rhythm towards the back end of yesterday's bowling effort and again this morning was certainly much better than how it started out for him.

“I think he's really finding some good rhythm and feel to his bowling and hopefully we can see him get a bag of wickets next game."

NSW Blues: Daniel Hughes, Nick Larkin, Kurtis Patterson, Moises Henriques, Daniel Solway, Jason Sangha, Peter Nevill (c, wk), Sean Abbott, Trent Copeland, Nathan Lyon, Harry Conway

Western Australia: Cameron Bancroft, Sam Whiteman, Shaun Marsh (c), Cameron Green, Ashton Turner, Ashton Agar, Josh Inglis (wk), Aaron Hardie, Matthew Kelly, Cameron Gannon, Liam Guthrie.