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A flowing half-century by Sam Whiteman and some good support were enough to give Western Australia the initiative over a Lloyd Pope-led South Australia.

Flame-haired legspinner Lloyd Pope did his best to take the fire out of the opposition's first innings but Western Australia maintained the advantage over South Australia after day one of their Sheffield Shield clash.

Pope (5-94) was occasionally expensive and often entertaining - but ultimately the only wicket taker as WA compiled a more than useful 5-310 season starter.

Sam Whiteman (65), Cameron Bancroft (46), Cameron Green (56), Ashton Agar (51 not out) and Josh Inglis (48no) all contributed as the runs flowed for WA with no one quite going on with the job.

A century stand by ex-Test opener Cameron Bancroft and Whiteman saw WA in charge early before Pope began to count his blessings.

In a superb finish to the first session, he bowled Bancroft with his wrong'un before having Whiteman caught at legslip by Travis Head in the space of five balls.

Marsh and Green threatened to take the game away from the home side, batting through the second session.

But Pope was quickly back in the thick of things after tea as Marsh, Green and Ashton Turner (4) were all removed with the addition of just 28 runs.

"I didn't feel like I was bowling too badly, they just played some good cricket shots on a wicket that wasn't doing a whole lot," Pope said of his initial spell where he was going for more than seven runs an over.

"I tried to put the figures out of my mind and kept just trying to bowl good balls."

At 5-215, last year's competition wooden spooners had things back in the balance but a lack of support for Pope proved costly as the increasingly confident Agar and Inglis took WA past 300.

Wes Agar (0-67) took some occasional stick from his older brother while Chadd Sayers and Nick Winter (both 0-49 from 20 overs) were economical enough without being particularly threatening.

After a disappointing 2019-20 season SA will look to take advantage of the first four rounds of the competition being played in Adelaide because of COVID-19 biosecurity measures.

"The team discussion was that (the match) was pretty even. It's a lightning-fast outfield and pretty flat in places," Pope said.