Blues close in on drought-breaking Shield win

Oliver Davies' maiden first-class century has put NSW on the brink of breaking their long winless run in the Sheffield Shield, with him and Chris Tremain helping the Blues close in on a shock victory over Western Australia.

After Davies' 129 from 143 balls helped NSW to 276 and a first-innings lead of 135, Tremain took 5-29 to leave Western Australia reeling at 7-104 at stumps on day two.

WA now need close to a miracle to avoid defeat, still needing 31 runs to make NSW bat again with heavy rain their only realistic hope of staving defeat.

A Blues victory would mark one of the greatest upsets in the competition's recent history, given NSW have not won a match since February 2022.

In the 21 months since, NSW have gone a state-worst 15 matches without victory while WA have won back-to-back titles.

Despite that NSW have looked a different side over the past two days at the SCG.

Left out for the first three rounds of the Shield, Davies helped NSW take control of the match on Tuesday.

After Western Australia were all out for 141 on the opening day, Davies endured a difficult period before stumps on Monday before taking the game on.

Resuming on five, Davies hit 13 fours and two sixes in his knock, including bringing up his hundred with a maximum over long on off spinner Corey Rocchiccioli.

He showed few nerves in the 90s while also using his feet and hitting through the covers against Rocchiccioli, after he scored quickly early while regularly cutting left-armer Joel Paris.

At age 23 Davies has long been regarded as a white-ball talent, but Tuesday was easily his most controlled innings in the red-ball game.

"It's pretty special, getting called back into the team I wanted to make a bit of a statement," Davies said. 

"It was a great innings. I felt really good out there.

"I was just trying to be as positive as I could. It's pretty exciting, and to do it at the SCG as well makes it extra special."

Tremain was then the star of the show with the ball, taking his tally of wickets for the season to 23 - the highest among the bowlers.

He had Sam Whiteman caught down legside for one, before trapping both Teague Wyllie and Hilton Cartwright lbw for ducks.

Josh Philippe was also out for a duck when he was caught at slip off Tremain, before the NSW quick took Ashton Turner's off stump when he left a ball on two.

The 32-year-old at one stage had figures of 5-7 and narrowly missed out on a hat-trick, as WA fell to 6-34.

At that stage it looked as if the match could be decided in two days, before Cameron Bancroft (44no) found support in Paris (26) and Charlie Stobo (16no).

Sheffield Shield 2023-24 standings

Team	Matches played M	Wins W	Losses L	Drawn D	No results N/R	Deductions Ded.	Batting Bonus Bat	Bowling Bonus Bowl	Total points PTS
1 Western Australia Men WA	10	5	2	3	0	0	5.53	9.4	47.93
2 Tasmanian Tigers Men TAS	10	5	2	3	0	0	6.06	8.3	47.36
3 NSW Men NSW	10	4	3	3	0	0	6.31	9	42.31
4 Victoria Men VIC	10	4	4	2	0	0	4.74	8.2	38.94
5 South Australia Men SA	10	3	6	1	0	0	5.19	9.3	33.49
6 Queensland Bulls QLD	10	2	6	2	0	0	3.54	8.3	25.84

Legend

M: Matches played

W: Wins

L: Losses

D: Drawn

N/R: No results

Ded.: Deductions

Bat: Batting Bonus

Bowl: Bowling Bonus

PTS: Total points