Henriques relief as New South Wales break drought by toppling champions

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New South Wales captain Moises Henriques admitted there was relief after the team ended their 15-match winless run in the Sheffield Shield with a convincing victory over defending champions Western Australia.

The visitors were bowled out for 136, after making 141 on the opening day, while Ollie Davies playing the defining innings of the game with his maiden first-class century.

New South Wales had seen victory slip away from them in the opening match of the Shield season when Queensland secured a draw at Cricket Central then they lost against South Australia and Victoria.

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They had not won in the competition since beating Tasmania at the SCG in February 2022.

"It's definitely a huge relief," Henriques said. "If anything, I feel like our preparation through pre-season had been magnificent and feel like I've seen a lot of the players grow in confidence. And we weren't quite getting the results in the longer format.

"Think it's really important to get a result to give the guys a little bit of reward for some really positive processes otherwise that doubt starts to set in again. Until you start seeing some results that doubt's always there, so I'm hoping on the back of that it builds up a lot of belief and a lot of confidence that they are on the right path because I believe they are.

"It's been a great week and we've shown with the skill around the squad that we can match it and defeat the reigning premiers in both competitions. We don't get carried away, it's one Shield win…[but] I'm hopeful that's the first of many into the future."

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WA had been reduced to 34 for 6 on the second day but then provided some stubborn resistance led by Cameron Bancroft who was eventually ninth out when he edged Liam Hatcher to slip from round the wicket for a 160-ball 54.

He had added 66 for the eighth wicket with Charlie Stobo to take WA to the brink of a lead before Stobo fended Hatcher to leg gully. The last three wickets fell for two runs leaving NSW a target of just two that was achieved before lunch.

"Our bowlers came up to another level and to bowl a WA side out for 140 in both innings was a pretty good result," Henriques said. "You take Ollie's 130 out of our scoring - that was a very special knock."

WA coach Adam Voges acknowledged his team had not been able to respond to the pressure put on by the NSW attack

"We were below par from probably ten minutes before lunch on day one when we lost those couple [of wickets]," he said. "We were outplayed by New South Wales, they were very good and we were off. The result reflects that.

"We were put under pressure…this is probably the first time our middle order has been exposed a little earlier and unfortunately we weren't able to handle that challenge this week."

Voges was hopeful that Aaron Hardie, who missed this match with a minor quad strain, would be available to face South Australia at the WACA next week.

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