Turner's turnaround puts WA in command of Shield final

Ashton Turner's match-changing century in the bowler-dominated Marsh Sheffield Shield final not only lifted Western Australia to a position of strength against Victoria, but ended his lengthy runs-scoring drought in the red-ball format.

When Turner reached his ton with a neatly placed single to mid-wicket off Test spinner Todd Murphy shortly before lunch on day three, he celebrated his fourth first-class ton but his first since November 2017.

He notched the milestone from 190 balls faced in an innings that included nine boundaries and a six as WA pushed past Victoria's first innings of 195 and extended their lead to 60.

Turner went to lunch unbeaten on 102 having been involved in a crucial unbeaten seventh-wicket stand of 77 (from 197 balls) with seamer Joel Paris who was 23 not out.

By becoming the first player in the Shield final to post an individual score above 50, he vindicated a decision by WA to return him to their red-ball team more than two years after he looked to have finished Shield career against New South Wales in Adelaide.

Prior to being recalled to the WA Shield line-up for the last game of the regular season, as a replacement for veteran batter Shaun Marsh who announced his retirement last month, Turner had been deemed surplus to requirement for WA's first-class plans.

The attacking right-hander, who played 27 limited-overs internationals for Australia between 2019 and 2021, scored his previous Shield half-century against Victoria at the MCG in December 2018 at which point his red-ball batting went into free-fall.

In his next six Shield innings across almost three seasons Turner scored just 24 runs at an average of four and highest score of six before losing his place during the COVID-19 affected 2020-21 season as WA began their resurgence.

The 30-year-old has remained integral to the state's white-ball program during that time, captaining WA to consecutive Marsh One Day Cup titles as well as Perth Scorchers to successive triumphs in the past two years.

And it was his batting in the recent BBL decider against Brisbane Heat that reinforced his value in pressure situations.

In that game at Perth Stadium, Turner went to the wicket with the Scorchers 3-54 in the eighth over chasing 176 and duly clubbed 53 from 32 deliveries reducing the target to 29 from 19 balls when he was dismissed, which the home team reached with four balls to spare.

WA were facing similar uncertainty when Turner took guard in his first-ever Shield final shortly after lunch yesterday.

Having bowled out Victoria for 195 to ensure the visitors claimed no bonus points in their batting innings, WA lost 3-1 inside 10 overs after lunch and crashed to 4-53 when Turner joined all-rounder Aaron Hardie with the game in the balance.

Turner was the aggressor in the pair's 86-run stand (off 22 overs) as he took Victoria's seamers to the extent he would occasionally walk out of his crease at release to try and disrupt the bowler's lengths.

He figured in another crucial stand (39 from 79 balls) with keeper Josh Philippe and then Paris as WA took a first-innings lead and began setting Victoria a target on the back of Turner's counter-attack.

"Part of the reason we brought him in when Shaun (Marsh) retired was he's had a pretty good season in all formats," WA coach Adam Voges said at the close of day one which Turner had reached 49no.

"He's been scoring runs but also the experience and calmness he brings, plus the leadership qualities that he brings.

"I thought we saw that again today.

"We lost three quick wickets, Scott Boland was bowling particularly well and we were under a bit of pressure so to be able to counter-punch the way he did in that partnership with Aaron Hardie and to wrestle the momentum back our way.

"It's easy to say you're going to do that, but to then go out and execute it and do it the way he did was outstanding.

"We needed someone to stand up."

Turner's innings was not only at odds with the bowler-dominated trend the game had followed across the first two days, it came at a clip that was also previously unseen.

In scoring at a rate of better than 50 per 100 balls faced, Turner became the first batter in the Shield decider to come to terms with the WACA pitch that had seen Victoria opener Ashley Chandrasinghe battle his way to 46no from 280 balls faced (scoring rate 16.42) in his team's first innings.

"I think you have to be pro-active," Voges said when asked about the merits of the aggressive approach adopted by Turner and Hardie (45 off 86 balls).

"You have to try and put some pressure back on when the bowling group do miss with their lengths.

"That was probably hard to do with (Scott) Boland in particular, and (Will) Sutherland got some good rewards too.

"So we had to try and find a way, and whenever you're playing as a batter you're always looking to score runs and most of our batsmen play better when they're looking to score."