Bulls demolish Victoria to earn finals spot

Queensland 9 for 230 (McKay 3-22, Harwood 3-58) beat Victoria 95 (Laughlin 3-14, Rimmington 3-15) by 135 runs
Scorecard

A devastating eight overs from Ben Laughlin and Nathan Rimmington sent Victoria crashing to a huge defeat and confirmed Queensland's place in the FR Cup decider. The Bushrangers lost 6 for 12 in the middle of their chase and threw away the opportunity to book a definite home final.

At one stage Victoria were in serious danger of failing to reach their all-time lowest one-day score of 65 but Clint McKay and Bryce McGain rescued them from that humiliation by taking the score from 8 for 56 to 9 for 86. McGain's 9 from 58 balls gave him some practice for the Test tour of South Africa and he was the last man out, one of two victims for Chris Simpson.

Laughlin's three wickets came in his first two overs as his accurate and aggressive bowling removed Brad Hodge for 25 and Andrew McDonald for 17. Rimmington then followed Laughlin's lead and got rid of Adam Crosthwaite, John Hastings and Shane Harwood.

It was a brilliant effort from the Bulls after they failed to make full use of the chance to bat first and posted 9 for 230. But after McKay had grabbed 3 for 22 to reduce the Bulls to 4 for 56 their recovery was reasonable. No Queensland batsman passed 40 but Andrew Symonds and Simpson chipped in with 39 each.

All the attention was on Symonds, who struck three fours and a six before he sliced an attempted slog off McGain that went to backward point. Queensland and Victoria are likely to play off in the final although Tasmania technically have a chance to take Victoria's spot if they can earn a double bonus point against Western Australia.