'Soon to be world-class': NSW counter WA pace with twin spin

NSW captain Kurtis Patterson believes young gun Tanveer Sangha is "soon to be world-class" as the Blues prepare to counter Western Australia's international quality pace attack with twin leg-spinners in Friday's Marsh One-Day Cup final.

It's a rematch from last season's final but both WA and NSW will field vastly different sides than the two that went head-to-head in last year's decider.

With that final played in April 2021 and only clashing with the Indian Premier League, NSW fielded an attack featuring Test stars Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon, while WA had the benefit of Cameron Green, Mitch Marsh, Ashton Agar and Josh Inglis.

This year, with those Australian representatives in Pakistan for the historic three-Test series, the Marsh Cup decider is shaping as a showdown between Western Australia's "world-class" pace attack and the NSW leg-spin duo of Adam Zampa and Sangha.

Patterson all but confirmed rising star Sangha would partner Australia's premier white-ball spinner as the Blues attempt to win back-to-back titles at the Junction Oval in Melbourne on Friday.

"I'd be pretty shocked if we didn't go in with the two (leg-spinners)," Patterson said on Thursday.

"Zamps is obviously world-class and Tanveer has shown that he's very soon to be world-class, so yeah, we'll be playing two spinners.

"Just the poise he (Sangha) has for a young wrist spinner and the control he has for a wrist spinner at his age is really exceptional.

"He feeds off having Zamps around and Adam's obviously a great leader in that space and especially with what he's done in white-ball cricket, it's really nice for Tanveer to see.

"Whilst they're both leg-spinners, they complement each other really well – Zamps is a little bit quicker through the air and attacks the stumps whereas Tanveer's got his little subtle variations and he's really skilful when batters are trying to go at him.

"They complement each other really well and Tanveer's super exciting."

Recent heavy rain has so far curtailed the pair's chances to bowl in tandem for a second time this season with NSW progressing through to the final with four washout results.

When they did play together against Victoria in November, it was 20-year-old Sangha who finished with better figures than his more senior counterpart, collecting 4-21 while Zampa claimed 2-44.

"I think we've played a tick over 100 overs of white-ball cricket this year so it's certainly really different," Patterson said of their four abandoned games against Victoria, Tasmania (twice) and South Australia.

"We've barely played any cricket so it just kind of feels like another game for us. But having said that, it is a final and it's a format that we've played really well over the last few years so we're going into the game as full of confidence as we can be."

Western Australia haven't played too much cricket of late either after spending the past month at home in Perth with their family and friends after they were on the road for the entire KFC BBL due to their state's COVID-19 border closure.

Not that it seemed to worry them after they smashed Victoria in their first game back on Tuesday to claim the bonus point and qualify for the final.

Skipper Ashton Turner indicated on Thursday they would likely pick an unchanged line-up meaning NSW will face a WA side with nine players boasting international experience.

Three of their five-man pace attack from that game – Jhye Richardson, AJ Tye, Jason Behrendorff along with Matthew Kelly and Aaron Hardie – have played for Australia in the past year with Behrendorff set to join the national side in Pakistan for the white-ball leg of the tour later this month.

"It's hard to change winning teams. I had a look at the wicket, I know they've taken a bit of grass off it from when we played Victoria the other day," Turner said.

"I think it'll probably still offer the bowlers enough and I think the wicket will spin but I think it would have spun the other day as well, we just didn't bowl any spin.

"We feel like we've been a good side in one-day cricket in particular for an extended period now and that means there's some quality players that don't get the opportunity they probably deserve.

"Fortunately for us it's worked out that Jhye's going to be in Australia and available to play for Western Australia – we've seen how well he performs particularly in domestic cricket but also in international cricket and any time we're able to utilise someone of his calibre, he makes us a better team."

Western Australia squad: Ashton Turner (c), Cameron Bancroft, Jason Behrendorff, Hilton Cartwright, Aaron Hardie, Nick Hobson, Matthew Kelly, Shaun Marsh, Lance Morris, Joel Paris, Josh Philippe, Jhye Richardson, D'Arcy Short, Andrew Tye, Sam Whiteman

NSW squad: Kurtis Patterson (c), Ben Dwarshuis, Jack Edwards, Matthew Gilkes, Liam Hatcher, Moises Henriques, Daniel Hughes, Baxter Holt, Hayden Kerr, Daniel Sams, Jason Sangha, Tanveer Sangha, Adam Zampa