Wednesday, 22 February 2012
A Phil Hughes half-century and Mitchell Starc's four-wicket haul helped New South Wales end a disappointing Ryobi Cup season on a high with a bonus-point win over Western Australia at the WACA Ground on Wednesday.
The Blues made hard work of their modest chase of 152 for victory, but got there thanks to a Hughes fifty which saw them reach the total with 14.1 overs to spare and win by four wickets.
Starc, who just two days earlier had been dropped from Australia's Commonwealth Bank Series squad, sent a timely reminder to selectors with an impressive new-ball spell and solid effort later saw him finish with 4-39 off 11.4 overs.
Test team-mate Brad Haddin also showed positive glimpses, recovering from his pair of ducks in NSW's embarrassing Sheffield Shield thrashing to WA by scoring a quick-fire 32 off 39 balls.
But most of Haddin's team-mates, including internationally-experienced batsmen Usman Khawaja (four), Simon Katich (zero) and Steven Smith (14), failed and made the chase much harder than it should have been.
The Warriors, who were bowled out for just 151 with more than seven overs left, had a glimmer of hope when NSW slumped to 6-119.
But Hughes (58 not out off 81 balls) and captain Stephen O'Keefe (18 not out) guided them to a victory which saw them finish the campaign out of the bottom two and bounce back from one of their worst ever Shield losses.
Nathan Coulter-Nile did all he could in an impressive all-round performance for the hosts, top-scoring with 53 not out off 70 balls to carry the Warriors to a bigger total than seemed likely when they were 6-62 in the 21st over, while he also was the pick of the bowlers with 3-44 off 12.
Michael Beer, Jason Behrendorff and debutant Tim Armstrong each took one wicket for WA, but their side's hopes of becoming the first team in more than 25 years to defend a score of less than 170 at the WACA were always slim.
Under-pressure Test No. 3 Shaun Marsh was one of the many WA batsmen to fail, dismissed by Starc for only five to continue a drought which has seen him score just 37 runs in his past four domestic innings.
In NSW's chase, they lost Khawaja early but were in the box seat after Haddin and Hughes put on a 55-run second-wicket stand.
The departures of Haddin and former Warrior Katich gave the hosts some hope, but Smith briefly steadied the innings and took NSW within 50 runs of victory.
Smith, Nic Maddinson (two) and Ben Rohrer (five) fell in quick succession to give WA some hope and their departures drastically slowed the run-rate, but O'Keefe and Hughes cautiously got the Blues home.
The defeat saw the Warriors take the wooden spoon with just one win for the season.