Western Australia 170 for 5 (Cartwright 73*, Philippe 42, Edwards 1-22) beat New South Wales 169 (Davies 51, Paris 4-21, Agar 2-35) by five wickets
Hilton Cartwright and Joel Paris powered Western Australia to a five-wicket win over NSW in the One-Day Cup final, securing a historic third straight title.
The recent dominant force in domestic cricket, WA set up their latest limited-overs victory when they skittled the hosts for just 169 at Sydney's Cricket Central on Sunday.
Left-arm quick Paris led the rout in his first one-day appearance of the season, with Ashton Agar and Andrew Tye also claiming multiple wickets.
However, it wasn't all smooth sailing in the run chase as WA were given a huge scare, as they were reduced to 30 for 3 in the eighth over. NSW quicks Ben Dwarshuis, Jackson Bird and Jack Edwards all claimed early wickets before Cartwright joined opener Josh Philippe at the crease, and steadied the innings.
Cartwright stepped up with his first half-century of the season - the eighth of his career - to lead all scorers and steer the visitors safely past the victory target with Nick Hobson. There were more than 16 overs to spare when Cartwright blasted the third six of his 80-ball innings.
"NSW had the momentum when I walked out there to bat and at that time it was just about rotating the strike between me and Josh Philippe," Cartwright told reporters post-match. "As soon as we grabbed that momentum we started running with it and got a small partnership.
"We knew as soon as we got to 130 or 140 it would break the game open for us, so it was just about that initial break of momentum against their bowlers."
WA are only the second state to claim a hat-trick of one-day titles, and the first in more than two decades since NSW did it for the second time after their hat-trick in 2002-03. It was WA's sixth one-day title in the last decade, and a record-extending 17th overall since the competition began in 1969.
"A lot of us are getting towards the tail ends of our careers and you understand how much these moments actually mean," Cartwright said. "I know it's five of the last seven [titles] but in the moment it certainly doesn't feel like that and you take them as good as gold."
NSW were sent in to bat and reached a healthy position when top-scorer Oliver Davies and Moises Henriques put on 74 for the fourth wicket. But captain Henriques fell when Agar claimed a sharp return catch off his own bowling, triggering a collapse. NSW lost their last seven wickets for just 34 runs and were bowled out in just 42 overs.
Davies hit the only six of the innings when he hoisted Cooper Connolly over deep midwicket, and left a pair of WA fielders searching for the ball in thick scrub surrounding the venue.
Henriques rued the missed opportunity to snare a title on home turf after a tough couple of years.
"Given the state of NSW cricket over the last 18-24 months and everything that's been written, a trophy in the cabinet would've been terrific," he said. "A lot of the guys have maybe felt like they've been stepping on eggshells and it would've given a lot of the players, coaches and high performance staff a real kick in their step. Unfortunately we let them down today."
WA will go in search of more silverware when their Sheffield Shield campaign resumes in March, having won the four-day competition in each of the past two seasons.
