Western Australian skipper Marcus North believes the Warriors are rapidly making the WACA ground the most feared piece of turf in Australian state cricket after they maintained top spot on the Sheffield Shield table through an outright win over Tasmania.
Having won six matches in a row in all competitions at the venue, North said his side was aiming to take maximum points in every match played there regardless of who it was facing.
But the skipper was aware this goal was only feasible as a result of the team's members all maturing into consistent performers over the last few seasons.
And, he said it was this maturity which allowed the Warriors to come away with a second consecutive outright win from two matches played in the new Shield campaign as they survived a tricky 197-run chase against the Tigers, despite a few scares along the way.
"If you look back over the previous seasons, we've played some really good cricket but there's been some decisive moments in four-day cricket which we've lost in previous times," North said after the match.
"I feel that we're improving in those decisive moments and those key sessions."
"Where in the past we've seemed to go missing at those times, we're actually standing up and maybe the Western Australian team a couple of years ago might have folded in that run chase," North said.
But instead of folding at 4-96 against a Tasmanian attack led with real venom by Brett Geeves (4-62), North and all-rounder Theo Doropoulos gradually took to regaining the initiative in an 80-run partnership.
North grafted his way to 47, although he never looked comfortable against Geeves' pace, while Doropoulos let his willow do the talking, easing the pressure significantly through 10 runs off a Tim MacDonald over on his way to hitting 58 and the winning runs.
"A key moment in the game was for me and Theo to get a partnership, a real decisive point, so just little things like that and doing the basics well (have helped us improve)," North said.
"Teams coming over here now have got to be worried and that's where we want to be. This is the WACA, we want to have that advantage, we want to play better at home than anyone else coming here."
"So to be on 12 points is very pleasing, but exactly where we wanted to be at the start of the year."
Tasmanian coach Tim Coyle agreed with North's assessment of the match, saying the Tigers couldn't take a trick in the decisive moments, especially as frontline bowler Ben Hilfenhaus was forced off the field for the entirety of WA's second innings after taking a knock on the knee in a collision with MacDonald while batting.
The result, though, leaves the 2006 Pura Cup winner with no points from the first two matches of this season, although it's not panic stations yet for Coyle.
"It's not our preferred way to start the season, two losses," Coyle said.
"Obviously we've played some reasonable cricket in these two games, we just haven't been able to nail those important sessions and win some sessions that were going to result in getting the six points."
"But full credit to our guys today, I thought with a bowler down, we did a really good job out there so, I think if we had of had Ben Hilfenhaus and another 50 or 60 runs, the result could have easily been different."
Coyle said scans on Hilfenhaus' knee had revealed no structural damage but said the bowler was still very sore and only a 50-50 prospect for this Friday's Ford Ranger Cup clash between the two teams.