Sheffield Shield: Western Australia’s late wickets pull them back into clash with Tasmania after fresh injury

Western Australia have fresh injury concerns over captain Sam Whiteman and have been made to field all day to start their Sheffield Shield clash with Tasmania in Hobart.

Stand-in captain Ashton Turner won the toss and sent the Tigers in to bat to start their second red-ball meeting in as many weeks, but the hosts batted the entire day to finish on 7-302.

Two wickets after a late-day rain delay, one each to Cam Gannon and Joel Paris, hauled WA back into the contest.

Whiteman was pulled out of the match after straining his side during a training session on Thursday and was the seventh forced change in a major overhaul to WA’s team.

Rain stopped play after 10 overs in the morning session and pressed pause on the evening session too, with 14 overs bowled in gloomy conditions after the second delay.

Paris denied the changes were unsettling for the group. The paceman did predict the pitch would get even better for batting in coming days, with grass expected to die off.

“The wicket is playing pretty nicely, but having said that, if you put the ball on the spot for a long period of time there is something there,” Paris said.

“Generally here it gets better to bat on over the remaining three days.”

A week after he was at the centre of angst between the two sides over Hilton Cartwright’s split innings in Perth, Jake Weatherald launched a 103-run opening stand with Caleb Jewell that threatened to take the game away from WA before they were truly in it.

Weatherald was dismissed for 49, running a ball down the leg-side through to second-game wicket-keeper Joel Curtis off Brody Couch, who was honing in over the wicket to the left-hander.

Jewell fell shortly after to left-armer Joel Paris, who took three wickets in his first shield match of the summer.

The WA left-armer had Jewell trapped in front for 61 and then claimed the wickets of Charlie Wakim caught at second-slip for 24 and Tasmanian captain Jordan Silk for 10 in the same spell.

All-rounder Mitch Owen, who blasted his way to a half-century in Perth last week, did the same on Friday and brought up the milestone by hitting Ashton Agar through cow corner for four.

Agar, making a return to first-class cricket for the first time since his most recent Test match in January 2023, bowled with good control in his first spell in the absence of the reliable Corey Rocchiccioli.

He wavered slightly in a long second spell, to finish day one with 0-39. Paris took 4-28 from 21 overs and Gannon claimed 2-66 from 22.

Former West Aussie Brad Hope fanned a ball to gully on 25 off Gannon and Teague Wyllie took an impressive catch to dismiss Owen, running back with the flight of the ball at mid-wicket.

Wyllie, who has not played a shield match since February, will open the batting with Sam Fanning when WA bats on Saturday.

Whiteman had battled a quad injury which kept him out of last Friday’s calamitous one-day defeat to the same opponent. He has stayed in Hobart with the team.