Western Australia v New South Wales, ING Cup, Perth

New South Wales win after a stumble

Cricinfo staff

January 2, 2005

New South Wales 7 for 209 (Katich 84 Harvey 3-29, Clark 4-24) beat Western Australia 207 (Hussey 50, Voges 52, Clark 4-24) by 3 wickets
Scorecard

A dropped catch by Darren Wates deprived Western Australia of a miraculous turnaround-victory against New South Wales in their ING Cup match at the WACA, in front of more than 11500 spectators. Wates spilled a straightforward catch from Ed Cowan off Brad Hogg over the boundary at long-off when New South Wales needed 12 runs from the final two overs. Chasing a modest 207, at one point New South Wales had been 4 for 181, on the back of 84 from the captain and former WA stalwart, Simon Katich, but they lost three wickets for 15 runs before Cowan, who made a nerveless unbeaten 22 on his state debut, and Nathan Bracken guided them home with seven wickets down.

Earlier, Stuart Clark took two wickets at the start of Western Australia's innings, and then returned to take two more as WA were bowled out for 207. Mike Hussey top-scored with 59, and shared an 88-run stand with Adam Voges (52) for the third wicket, but that was the only significant partnership of the innings. Only a superb one-handed catch from NSW's wicketkeeper Brad Haddin was enough to prise out Hussey, whose innings was near-flawless. It was a disappointing game for Brett Lee, though - returning to the state side after being dropped from the Australian squad for the Sydney Test, he only managed figures of 1 from 52 from his 10 overs.

The victory lifted NSW to fifth in the ING Cup table, still four points behind WA while Queensland remain top with six wins from seven matches.

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