Starc fires but Tigers dig in at Drummoyne

Paceman Mitchell Starc picked up a pair of wickets, including Ashes colleague Matthew Wade, as he strives to improve his chances of a Test recall on the opening day of the Marsh Sheffield Shield match at Sydney's Drummoyne Oval.

Starc (2-36 off 22 overs) had Wade (20) caught in the middle session and trapped Caleb Jewell lbw with an unplayable reverse-swinging yorker in the final hour, during which he bowled with good pace and beat the bat on a number of occasions.

Batting first on Friday after Wade won the toss, Tasmania made 6-258, Beau Webster top-scoring with 65 before he was spectacularly run out by Sean Abbott off his own bowling.

Test spinner Nathan Lyon (1-69 off 22) had a good workout in his first match since the Ashes.

Left-arm speedster Starc, who played just the fourth Test in the Ashes, took 1-129 in his first NSW hit-out of the season against Queensland in the opening Shield round.

On Friday, he bowled with perseverance on a wicket offering him little.

Starc sent down eight tidy but wicketless overs for 12 runs in the opening session.

Openers Jordan Silk (41) and Alex Doolan (58) put on a 100-run partnership, but were both caught in the slips by Trent Copeland off Sean Abbott (2-41).

Wade started well, cruising to 20 off 27 balls, taking three boundaries off Lyon.

The Tigers' captain gifted Starc his first wicket with a horrid-looking mistimed shot straight to mid-off.

Starc fired out Jewell with the old ball even though a new one was available.

The Blues' middle-order Test batting aspirant Kurtis Patterson re-aggravated a quadriceps injury in the field which kept him out of the first Shield round.

A decision on whether he can bat will be made after the Blues' innings starts.

Webster, who was chosen ahead of veteran batsman George Bailey, was run out close to stumps by a direct hit from Abbott, who threw down the stumps from short cover as he fielded off his own bowling.

Webster put on 75 for the fourth wicket with Ben McDermott (38), who skied a delivery from Lyon into the gloves of NSW wicketkeeper and captain Peter Nevill.

Harry Conway was left out of the NSW XI despite taking 10 wickets and being named player of the match in their win over Queensland last week.

NSW XI: Daniel Hughes, David Warner, Steven Smith, Kurtis Patterson, Moises Henriques, Peter Nevill (c/wk), Sean Abbott, Mitchell Starc, Steve O’Keefe, Trent Copeland, Nathan Lyon

Tasmania XI: Jordan Silk, Alex Doolan, Beau Webster, Matthew Wade (c), Ben McDermott, Caleb Jewell, Tim Paine (wk), Sam Rainbird, Alex Pyecroft, Lawrence Neil-Smith, Riley Meredith