A maiden List-A century from Daniel Drew wasn’t enough to get the West End Redbacks over the line in their opening match of the Marsh Cup season, with Western Australia’s total of 371 proving too much to reel in on Tuesday.
SA’s batters gave it a big crack hitting 47 boundaries, but fell 22 runs short at the completion of the second innings.
The afternoon started with Jake Fraser-McGurk receiving his Redbacks cap from Tim Nielsen to mark his State debut.
After winning the toss and bowling, the match got off to a perfect start for the Redbacks thanks to Brendan Doggett bowling D’Arcy Short in the first over with a beautiful delivery that Short left but nipped back in.
Doggett and Wes Agar created a lot of opportunities in the opening overs, with that pressure helping Nathan McAndrew get his first for the day when he rattled Josh Phillipe’s stumps.
At the 30-over mark, the Redbacks were doing well, holding WA to 3-139.
However, the last 20 overs belonged to WA, with Sam Whiteman, Ashton Turner and Nick Hobson all making big scores at a quick rate to take WA to 7-371 after 50.
Doggett, McAndrew and Manenti each took two wickets.
With a big chase coming up, Fraser-McGurk walked to the middle to open for SA for the first time, but a positive start was short-lived when he was caught on the boundary just one ball after hitting a massive six.
Henry Hunt and Daniel Drew went on to have a 96-run partnership and when Hunt got out for 47, Nathan McSweeney took over.
His 51 off 44 increased the run rate and Drew lifted with him, bringing up his first List-A century in only his third Marsh Cup match.
Drew fell for 120, but his efforts, along with late innings cameos from Wes Agar (37* off 16 balls) and Jake Lehmann (21 off 15) helped get the total to 349, but it wasn’t enough as the reigning champions took a 22-run win.
The centurion spoke about his innings post-game.
"It was obviously pleasing to get some time in the middle and contribute to the team," Drew said.
"Obviously disappointing to fall short in a pretty high scoring game, but it was nice to get some time in the middle.
"Especially after it was quite hard work at the start, but to push through that and reap the rewards at the end was nice."
The Redbacks will remain in Queensland for their second Marsh Cup match of the season on Thursday, where they will play the home state.
You can watch the match against Queensland on cricket.com.au, Foxtel and Kayo Sports from 1:30pm.