On a pitch tailor-made for high scoring, home team Western Australia proved more in tune with conditions than South African rival, KwaZulu-Natal, to win the Champions Cup Final by a margin of six wickets at the WACA ground in Perth tonight. The Warriors, who remained undefeated throughout this four-team tournament, overhauled the Dolphins' score of 8/243 with five deliveries to spare.

Despite the brilliant late rally engineered by all-rounder John Kent (81*) and wicketkeeper-batsman Errol Stewart (46), KwaZulu-Natal's total always looked a shade modest.

This was particularly true once Western Australian openers Marcus North (55) and Ryan Campbell (29) had added a stand of sixty in better than even time at the start of the evening session. Star batsmen Simon Katich (67*) and Justin Langer (34) also weighed in, ensuring that the side which gained entry to this tournament by virtue of winning the 1999-2000 Mercantile Mutual Cup always retained a decisive edge.

Kent and Stewart threatened to spoil the locals' party when they joined to add an enterprising ninety-five runs for the seventh KwaZulu-Natal wicket earlier in the day. Kent's strokeplay and placement was inspired; Stewart's did not lose much by comparison; and the pair scampered cleverly between the wickets. But a succession of dismissals through the early stages of the visitors' innings ensured that they were never able to fully capitalise upon their victory at the toss. Speedsters Matthew Nicholson (2/50) and Jo Angel (2/39) wreaked havoc initially, reducing their opponents to scorelines of 3/41 and 6/133 at different times.

Even a promising partnership of fifty-five between Mark Bruyns (33) and man-of-the-series Wade Wingfield (28) met an unsavoury end when the latter was disastrously run out after pushing a delivery sedately into the leg side.

West Indian veteran Eldine Baptiste (2/40) later hit back in a lionhearted display for the Dolphins, and the fielding always remained enthusiastic. At the end of seven days of general dominance over opponents which had come from as far afield as India, New Zealand and South Africa, though, the Western Australians remained a step ahead of the competition.

© 2001 CricInfo Ltd