Western Australian batsman Hilton Cartwright says his side handled the pressure that comes with being reigning champions well to secure a vital one-day victory at the WACA on Sunday.
WA knocked off Queensland to put their title defence back on track after their campaign to win a fourth straight title got off to a shaky start.
With two losses to South Australia and New South Wales in their opening matches, a loss to Queensland would have put WA on three losses with only four games of the series left to play, and effectively shattered all hopes of appearing in the final.
However, it was a heroic knock from Cartwright (66* from 49) which saw his side over the line with six balls to spare and played an important role in keeping WA’s campaign alive.
Speaking to SportFM on Tuesday morning, Cartwright said getting the win was a ‘nice’ after the rough start to the season.
“We had a good chat after the game. To get on the board is obviously nice after the last three years being champions,” he said.
“The pressure was right on us and chasing 300 at the best of times is not an easy task.
“I think we all contributed really well throughout the list. The bowlers actually performed, even though they did make 300, we still felt like when Neser and Swepson came out at the end there and they were able to whack them.
“It was a pretty good indicator that it was a nice wicket to bat on. So pressure was right on, but the guys seemed to handle it pretty well.”
Queensland set a mammoth task for the West Aussies, scoring 300 runs after losing the toss and being sent out to bat first.
WA were on track with Queenland’s score, even once Sam Whiteman (74 from 67) fell during the 30th over and Cartwright came to the crease.
He was joined by Ashton Agar with just over nine overs remaining and 62 runs to chase down. Together they formed an important match-winning partnership, with Agar scoring 21 off 27 deliveries.
Reflecting upon this partnership, Cartwright admitted batting on the WACA pitch was difficult, but there was no reason for him or Agar to panic in those final few overs.
“It was a flat wicket once you got in, but it felt like the ball just was quite skiddy, whereas for the WACA generally speaking it’s not a very skid friendly, the bounce is usually a bit truer,” he said.
“I think a lot of our batters throughout the course of the match actually struggled with that earlier in the inning.
“I kept referring to the Duckworth Lewis par that was on the scoreboard and we were always within five runs of that, so I kept saying to him (Agar) there’s no need for any form of panic right now.
“It might have been a bit of peace of mind for him, but he’s played a lot of cricket and a lot of one day cricket as well internationally as well as domestically, so I’m sure he had his own way of planning for that, but that was the only piece of advice I gave to him when he first walked out there.”
Western Australia will be looking for their second win of the series against Tasmania, who have yet to win one-day match this year, at the WACA Ground on October 25th. Five days prior, they will play each other in the Sheffield Shield.
Last year, the two sides battled it out in the final, with WA coming out on top to win their third consecutive Shield title.
“At the beginning of last year a lot of people were unsure about how they’d go and they’ve proven a lot of people wrong,” said Cartwright.
“They’ve lost a few of their local players back to New South Wales and the likes but they’ve shown that they’re actually quite a competitive force in all different playing conditions.
“They’ve showed in the past that they can be very competitive. I know that round two last year they played really well out here and previous years they’ve actually knocked us off at the WACA.”
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