Bollinger and Bracken flatten Queensland

New South Wales 243 for 7 (Thornely 51, O'Brien 50*) beat Queensland 99 (Bracken 4-15, Bollinger 4-31) by 144 runs
Scorecard

Doug Bollinger celebrates another wicket with Brad Haddin © Getty Images

Nathan Bracken and Doug Bollinger each took four wickets as New South Wales trounced Queensland at Brisbane by 144 runs. Put into bat in favourable bowling conditions, NSW stumbled to 148 for 5 before Dominic Thornely (51) and Aaron O'Brien (50*) put on a crucial stand of 85 for the sixth wicket.

NSW's total of 243 for 7 represented an excellent fightback, and although Queensland made a reasonable start, they were then decimated by the left-arm pair of Bracken and Bollinger who found pace and bounce to unsettle the batsmen - Bollinger finished with 4 for 31. The pair dismissed Queensland for 99 in the 32nd over and only Jimmy Maher, their captain, who made 34 from 40 balls, made any significant contribution.

The pitch offered plenty of assistance to the seamers, and Bollinger was delighted by his performance: "That's up there with my best," he told Fox News, "but I just have to be patient. It's the first game of the season and there's still two or three blokes in front of me for NSW."

Maher was understandably disappointed with his side's performance, in particular of his bowlers: "There's no excuses for being bowled out for 99. The wicket did a bit but not that much," he said. "We didn't bowl anywhere near as good as we could have. They should never have got anywhere near 243."