New South Wales captain Moises Henriques says an upset win over Western Australia to snap a 15-game winless streak will give his young side a huge confidence boost amid a tough rebuild.
The Blues claimed their first Sheffield Shield victory in 625 days on Wednesday when they completed a 10-wicket demolition of the reigning champions at the SCG.
A counterattacking maiden Shield century from Ollie Davies and a breathtaking five-wicket spell by Chris Tremain on Tuesday fired the home side to the drought-breaking win, which Henriques said would help instil belief in his inexperienced teammates.
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“The pre-season wand coming into this year has been magnificent, and I 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,” Henriques said.
“I think it was 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 … I’m hoping on the back of that (win) it builds up a lot of belief and a lot of confidence in the guys that they’re on the right path.”
The Blues sacked coach Phil Jaques midway through last season and eventually dropped captain Kurtis Patterson after a serious form slump, appointing decorated former Victorian mentor Greg Shipperd as coach and reinstating Henriques as the skipper.
“The situation that he’s done it in, under pressure, he’s going to take a lot of confidence out of that,” he said.
“We obviously know how good he is, that’s why he’s playing, but that innings is pretty special on a wicket that was still offering something for the bowlers.
“It’s probably been more so his preparation and how much he actually wants to try things in the nets as opposed to before … he never really used to love facing bowlers in the nets and didn’t take his net practice all that seriously, but this season he’s really wanted it in there, he’s really tried to get better.”
Davies, 23, put on 116 with Henriques for the fifth wicket after coming in with his side 4-71.
He belted 13 fours and two sixes in his 129 from 143 balls, lifting off-spinner Corey Rocchiccioli over mid-on to bring up his maiden first-class ton.
After securing a 135-run first innings lead, Tremain continued his hot form as he claimed 5-7 in 38 deliveries.
He had Sam Whiteman strangled down the leg side for one before he ripped through Teague Wyllie and Hilton Cartwright in consecutive deliveries in his next over to be on a hat-trick heading into the final session on day three.
The 32-year-old narrowly missed Josh Philippe’s outside edge with the hat-trick ball, but squared him up four deliveries later to have him caught at second slip for a duck to leave WA 4-21.
Cameron Bancroft made it to stumps unbeaten on 44 but fell shortly after play resumed on Wednesday to Liam Hatcher, with the Warriors bowled out for 136 before the Blues took four deliveries to reach their two-run target.