A Warriors young gun developed a taste for first class runs while one of their best rediscovered his, but the honours went to Tasmania on the opening day of the Pura Cup match at the WACA.

Despite a fighting 90 by Michael Hussey and a classy 46 by 17-year-old Shaun Marsh, the hosts were in trouble at 9-228 at stumps.

Hussey, who has not scored a first class century this season after earning an ACB contract for his prolific efforts last year, batted himself into some form with his marathon five hour knock.

The neat left hander, who went into the match with 309 runs at 22.07 for the season, was eventually out caught behind for 90 off the destroyer Damien Wright (4-64).

He batted with extreme caution to reach 50 in 239 minutes and 165 deliveries, after being anchored on 20 for 53 minutes, but lifted his rate after tea to add another 40 runs in his final hour at the crease.

After winning the toss, Tasmanian skipper Jamie Cox elected to take advantage of an unusually cool Perth morning by bowling first but the Tigers were forced to wait until the 24th over for the breakthrough when debutant Scott Meuleman was dismissed at 1-43.

Meulemen made a promising start to his first class career with a solid knock that featured four boundaries, including a text book cover drive and a powerful pull shot.

He eventually fell for 27, pushing an Andrew Downton (1-39) delivery off his pads to short leg where the chance was gratefully accepted by Dene Hills.

The 20-year-old right hander is the third Meuleman to represent WA following in the footsteps of grandfather Ken, who also played one Test for Australia, and father Bob who played 14 games for WA and was later a State selector. His dismissal brought new skipper Simon Katich to the crease, fresh from an unbeaten 228 in the Warriors' 36 run Pura Cup victory over South Australia last week, but after making a start the Test hopeful was out edging Shane Watson (1-26 )to Michael Di Venuto in the slips for 23.

Veteran all-rounder Shaun Young (2-17) then snared two wickets in successive balls to take control of the game for the Tigers. Out of sorts former Zimbabwe Test player Murray Goodwin was first, caught at first slip Daniel Marsh for eight, before Marcus North was trapped LBW for a duck to make the score 4-93.

That signalled the start of the Hussey-Marsh partnership which yielded 99 runs and looked set to put WA back in control, but when it ended the Tigers took four more wickets for 36 runs to win the day.

© 2001 AAP