Hilton Cartwright and Joel Paris have powered Western Australia to a five-wicket win over NSW in the one-day cup final, securing a historic third straight title.
The recent dominant force in domestic cricket, WA set up their latest limited overs victory when they skittled the hosts for just 169 at Sydney’s Cricket Central on Sunday.
Left-arm quick Paris (4-21) led the rout in his first one-day appearance of the season, with Ashton Agar (2-35) and AJ Tye (2-39) also claiming multiple wickets.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing in the run chase as WA were given a huge scare, reduced to 3-30 in the eighth over.
Blues quicks Ben Dwarshuis, Jackson Bird and Jack Edwards all claimed early wickets before Cartwright (73 not out) joined opener Josh Philippe (42) at the crease and steadied the innings.
Cartwright stepped up with his first half-century of the season – the eighth of his career – to lead all scorers and steer the visitors safely past the victory target with Nick Hobson (26 not out).
WA reached 5-170 with more than 16 overs to spare when Cartwright blasted the third six of his 80-ball innings. He also hit seven fours.
Joel Paris celebrates after taking the wicket of Jackson Bird. (Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)
WA are only the second state to claim a hat-trick of one-day titles and first in more than two decades, since NSW did it for the second time in 2001-03.
It was WA’s sixth one-day title in the last decade and a record-extending 17th overall since the competition began in 1969.
NSW were sent in to bat in Sunday’s final and reached a healthy position when top-scorer Oliver Davies (51) and Moises Henriques (32) put on 74 for the fourth wicket.
But captain Henriques fell when Agar claimed a sharp return catch off his own bowling, triggering a collapse.
NSW lost their last seven wickets for just 34 runs and were bowled out in just 42 overs.
Davies hit the only six of the Blues’ innings when he hoisted Cooper Connolly (1-41) over deep midwicket and left a pair of WA fielders searching for the ball in thick scrub surrounding the venue.
WA will go in search of more silverware when their Sheffield Shield campaign resumes in March, having won the four-day competition in each of the past two seasons.