Clark and MacGill seal innings win

New South Wales 4 for 414 (Haddin 154, Katich 78, White 4-105) beat Victoria 235 (Moss 114, MacGill 4-103) and 91 (Clark 5-10, MacGill 4-41)by an innings and 88 runs
Scorecard

New South Wales blew away Victoria for just 91 on the penultimate day of their Pura Cup match at the Junction Oval in Melbourne, and sealed victory by an innings and 88 runs. Stuart Clark, the medium pacer, sent down a dream spell as he claimed 5 for 10 from only 13.5 overs and triggered off a dramatic collapse. Remarkably, Victoria lost nine wickets for just 34 runs after lunch.

New South Wales have not beaten Victoria by an innings in 30 years when they slumped by an innings and 23 at the MCG. The thumping defeat this time was engineered by Clark, who began with five maidens and then went on to scalp five wickets in 45 balls.

Victoria needed to score 180 to make New South Wales bat again, but began badly, as they lost Matthew Elliott for just 12. But Brad Hodge and Graeme Rummans went through to lunch largely untroubled. That, however, merely turned out to be the calm before the storm.

In the post-lunch session, wickets tumbled at regular intervals. Hodge was lbw to Clark for 19 with the score on 57 and Jonathan Moss, the first-innings centurion, scored just 10 before being bowled. From then on, the middle-order offered almost no resistance. David Hussey, Cameron White, Andrew McDonald and Peter Roach added eight runs between them and were cleaned up quickly. With the middle-order blown away, there was little the tail could do as the innings ended after only 36.5 overs.

Clarke's five-for was the key factor in the rout, but no-one should forget Stuart MacGill, who picked up 4 for 41 to go with his first-innings bag of 4 for 105. "It's a great feeling when things like that are happening, everyone gets behind it," Clark is quoted as saying by the Australian Associated Press. "I've had a six-for a couple of years ago but 5-10 would be up there (as my best bowling)."

Greg Shipperd, the Victorian coach, admitted that his team were outclassed. "We talked last night about making sure we found a way back into the game and to provide ourselves on some fight, but we were completely outplayed today. We've all probably seen collapses before and that was a beauty."

"Once an opposition team gets on a roll and they realise what areas to bowl ... You've got a world-class spinner turning it a big way from one end and another fellow in the middle of a terrific spell - that was challenging, but it was disappointing we weren't able to at least compete on an even basis."