Clutch Hilton Cartwright helps dig WA out of trouble in one-day cup win over Queensland

Hilton Cartwright has revived Western Australia’s faltering one-day cup title defence in a dramatic match-winning partnership with Ashton Agar.

The WA all-rounders engineered a crucial victory over Queensland at the WACA Ground on Sunday that means the three-time reigning champions dodge a 0-3 start to the seven-game season.

Cartwright continued strong white-ball form with an unbeaten 66 off just 49 balls to hunt down Queensland’s score of 300.

The hosts won by four wickets with just one over to spare.

Cartwright, batting at seven in a deep order, came to the crease when Sam Whiteman was dismissed for 74.

Brash all-rounder Cooper Connolly played some inventive shots in his 39 before edging behind and making way for Agar.

The pair came together still needing 62 runs with nine-and-a-half overs left.

Agar scored 21 off 27 balls, despite labouring early in his innings. He played the perfect sidekick role to Cartwright, who muscled five boundaries and six sixes.

They took 21-year-old second-gamer Tom Whitney for 19 off his final over to swing the match.

Cartwright admitted the total looked “daunting” after losing early wickets.

“It’s always nice to finish and innings, it’s always hard to get those last few runs, you’ve got a few mental battles you’re playing with yourself.

“It’s nice to one, spend time in the middle, but also be a part of the partnership that gets you over the line.”

National selectors will name an Australia A squad and a group for a one-day international series against Pakistan early this week and Whiteman is demanding he is considered.

WA’s red-ball captain backed up a Sheffield Shield century last week with another big score that included 10 boundaries against the Bulls.

Remarkably, he is still battling the broken finger that threatened the start of his season.

The victory also came with mounting injuries. Lance Morris missed this game and will sit out a shield clash with Tasmania later this month with a quad problem and Joel Paris was not named.

The innings of Usman Khawaja for Queensland earlier in the day was the one that shaped the game though. Khawaja came to the crease after Jhye Richardson had rolled through Ben McDermott with an unplayable inswinger and Bryce Jackson — backed in to share the new ball after a six-wicket haul — trapped Matt Renshaw lbw for a duck.

He briefly linked up with Marnus Labuschagne, who made 11 and Jack Clayton, who also made a duck, before a more meaningful partnership with Lachlan Hearne (76) steered them out of the mud and to a strong total.

In Ashton Turner, Agar, Connolly and D’Arcy Short, WA combined for 20 overs of spin.

In what could be an intriguing twist to the battle for selection in Australia’s Test team, Labuschagne — who has taken over full-time captaincy of the Bulls — bowled eight overs.

Labuschagne began with a middle-overs spell bowling medium-pace and returned with his more customary leg-spin later in the innings. It comes after he bowled six overs seam-up during last week’s shield draw.