Sheffield Shield: Western Australia’s Lance Morris restricted through two final days of New South Wales

Bowling restrictions will limit West Australian pace ace Lance Morris across the final two days of their crucial Sheffield Shield clash with New South Wales at the WACA Ground. That’s after born-again former Test batter Kurtis Patterson steered the Blues out of murky waters and to a first-innings lead that puts them in the box seat. The best batter of this year’s shield made 86 and for most of Friday he had WA’s four-peat hopes on his bat. The Blues started the day on 3-17, but finished it on 8-258 and with a 62-run lead thanks to Patterson’s marathon innings and a brave 41 by Matt Gilkes after a Morris bouncer cannoned into the grill of his helmet. Morris took 4-25 from 18 overs, including his two wickets on Thursday evening. But it appears unlikely he will bowl again in this innings because he loads are restricted to around 30 overs. Sam Whiteman got funky with his bowlers late in the day in pursuit of wickets. Off-spinner Corey Rocchiccioli was handed a seven-over old ball, Hilton Cartwright bowled 11 and Ashton Turner bowled the last. Blues captain Jack Edwards finished the day on 45 and Chris Green on 25. WA lost a crucial final hour where thy could have escaped with a lead. It means Saturday, where WA will attempt to set a competitive fourth-innings chase, is pivotal to their hopes of making the final. They must beat both the Blues and Victoria next week. Morris flagged they could need to make upwards of 250 on a wicket that has improved for batting after the first day. “It probably flattened out a little bit and obviously once the ball gets a bit softer it stops nipping around just that little bit more. “Credit to KP, he batted really nicely today and a few of those other guys from New South stuck at it and made it tough for us. “The game is poised quite nicely at the moment.” Liam Hatcher — the second nightwatchman deployed by NSW on Thursday — fell when he hit a ball back to Cam Gannon on 5. But that was the only wicket WA took until just after for 40 overs, when Jayden Goodwin ran him out from the deep-square boundary. Former WA batter Josh Philippe was caught at gully by a diving Gannon for 26 and Ollie Davies played a brash cross-bat shot to be bowled by Rocchiccioli. Edwards survived one significant lbw shout off Gannon late in the day. Morris, who has been tightly managed by Cricket Australia this summer, said a rare appearance in back-to-back shield matches had helped him find his groove. “It goes a long way to have a couple back-to-back and I’m definitely a rhythm kind of player,” he said. “I felt pretty good today and it’s nice to be back out on the WACA. “It’s nice to be able to have an impact and be economical as well. “I’m feeling really good, it’s nice to get back into that rhythm of playing shield cricket and working through those general niggles and stuff like that that come with red-ball cricket.” Morris is likely to sit out next week’s clash with Victoria so that he would be available for the shield final from March 26 if WA do make it.