Ashton turns it WA's way in Perth

Skipper Ashton Turner has defied illness to help Western Australia overcome a one-man show from NSW Blues debutant Daniel Sams to get their JLT One-Day Cup title defence off to a winning start.

Sams, 25, starred with bat and ball in his first match for the Blues, scoring 62 from 60 deliveries batting at No.8 and then taking two wickets in his very first over to have WA in early trouble.

But chasing just 205 to win, the Warriors steadied after a mid-innings slump to win by four wickets with almost 18 overs remaining.

Turner was the hero of the run chase with an unbeaten knock of 70 from 55 balls, an innings made more impressive by an illness that led to him shifting down the batting order to No.7.

"He was on and off the field all day," paceman Andrew Tye said of his captain after play. "Something's not quite right with him so we've got him in quarantine at the moment.

"I think Ash was in a hurry to get it done. I think he might have a date with the toilet."

The troubles for the Blues started before a ball had even been bowled; skipper Peter Nevill was ruled out on Tuesday morning for the entire tournament due to a broken finger, with Kurtis Patterson stepping up as skipper.

And the Warriors had some significant injury news of their own; Marcus Stoinis, D'Arcy Short and Matt Kelly were all ruled out on match morning, Short due to a bizarre hand injury suffered while playing with his dog two weeks ago.

On the field, the visitors barely got going with the bat having won the toss at a sun-drenched WACA Ground and slumped to 6-107 by the time Sams came to the crease.

But the right-hander gave his side a chance with an impressive 60-ball innings of 62 as NSW's last four wickets added almost 100 to push them to a score of 204.

Warriors left-armer Joel Paris (2-26) got the early breakthroughs before debutant Cameron Green (3-44) and ODI quick Tye (3-30) helped to finish the NSW innings inside 44 overs.

And despite an early double strike from left-armer Sams, who removed Josh Inglis and Sam Whiteman in the space of four balls to reduce the score to 2-9, the Warriors secured a bonus-point victory.

Impressive opener Josh Philippe (59 from 59 balls) led the way with the bat before Turner and Ashton Agar (28 from 25) shared a 96-run stand late in the match to ice the win.

The absence of Nevill hurt the Blues in the field as Agar and Turner built their match-winning partnership; new gloveman Jay Lenton, who only flew from Sydney to Perth on the morning of the match, spilled one catch and also let a simple chance go in a miscommunication with his new first-slip partner, Daniel Hughes. Hughes had also put down a simple chance off Philippe earlier in the innings.

The Blues will have just 48 hours to regroup before they face South Australia on Thursday before the Warriors take on the Redbacks on Saturday.

Western Australia: Josh Inglis, Josh Philippe, Sam Whiteman, Ashton Turner (c), Hilton Cartwright, Jon Wells, Ashton Agar, Cameron Green, Jhye Richardson, Joel Paris, Andrew Tye, Will Bosisto (12th man)

New South Wales: Ryan Gibson, Daniel Hughes, Kurtis Patterson, Moises Henriques, Nick Larkin, Jack Edwards, Jay Lenton, Daniel Sams, Steven O'Keefe, Sean Abbott, Mickey Edwards, Jason Sangha (12th man)