Western Australia 247 for 7 (Philippe 81, Bancroft 78*) beat Victoria 244 for 6 (Short 75, Tye 3-53) by 3 wickets

In a tense finale at the Junction Oval on Saturday, WA reached 247 for 7 to pass Victoria’s 244 for 6 with just four balls to spare in a match shortened to 36 overs each following morning rain in Melbourne.

Philippe set the victory platform at the top of the order with a whirlwind 81 that featured five towering sixes. By the time Philippe was out, WA had advanced to 114 from just 12.3 overs.

Philippe displayed a wide variety of shots in his 50-ball innings, including three massive sixes in a single Jono Merlo over. That over added 27 runs, with the medium pacer’s two overs costing 40 runs.

WA needed six from the final six deliveries after Will Sutherland delivered a superb penultimate over which yielded a wicket and just one run.

Short, though, had little support from teammates and a host of batters were unable to build an innings after making a start. Test aspirant Marcus Harris came in at No.3 and posted 24, while opener Mackenzie Harvey contributed 28.

Andrew Tye made the most of the conditions to knock over three frontline opponents including Harris and in-form Victorian skipper Peter Handscomb who looked dangerous before his 26-ball innings ended on 30.