Queensland's slim hopes of competing in their ninth straight Pura Cup final hinge on their trip to the SCG this week as the second-last round of games approaches. Three matches begin on Thursday and each could shape the final with only South Australia out

George Bailey has been thrust into Tasmania's captaincy at the business end of a tight season as the Tigers press their case to host the Pura Cup final for the first time

Victoria's reputation as first-class chasers failed them in the match that mattered but it was still nagging at Jimmy Maher close to the end

A century to Jimmy Maher and some excellent bowling by Aaron Nye earned Queensland their first one-day title since 1997-98

Anyone silly enough to dismiss Australia's domestic one-day cup as insignificant needs only to read Jimmy Maher's comments to realise how seriously the competition is taken

Craig McMillan and Brendon McCullum blasted New Zealand to another massive run-chase as they negated Matthew Hayden's 181 and inflicted a cleansweep on Australia at Hamilton. The home team flew to 350 on the back of McMillan's 117 and his 165-run partners

Australia's one-day crown will be in danger of slipping even further if their bowlers fail to contain the batsmen in the middle overs

Australia fell from their No. 1 one-day ranking for the first time as Ross Taylor, Peter Fulton and Craig McMillan propelled New Zealand to 337 with an over to spare to secure the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy

Paul Collingwood's match-winning century at Melbourne was not your typical one-day starring role

In a year when he defined his captaincy with a crushing 5-0 Ashes recovery, Ricky Ponting has created further history by becoming the first man to win the cleansweep of the Allan Border Medal, the Test Player of the Year and the One-Day Player of the Year

Chris Rogers and Ben Hilfenhaus, two players who could well be part of Australia's Test team within a year, were rewarded for their outstanding domestic performances at Allan Border Medal night in Melbourne

Tim Nielsen has been confirmed as John Buchanan's replacement as the coach of Australia

Richie Benaud has been recognised for his life-long contribution to cricket and will join Charles Macartney as the two newest members of the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame

Brydon Coverdale on New Zealand's man of the moment, Jacob Oram

England have been looking for positives despite winning only one game on their horror three-month tour of Australia. Their latest loss provided one clear positive: their trip will almost certainly end a week early after New Zealand's comprehensive 58-run

The curse of the Andrew Flintoff captaincy continued at Adelaide, where Daniel Vettori bowled New Zealand to victory in a low-scoring contest. Vettori took four wickets as England collapsed in their modest chase of 211 to be all out for 120 in the 38th ov

Brydon Coverdale looks back at The Week That Was... January 15 to 21, 2007

Michael Hussey again finished a difficult job for his team, taking Australia to victory against New Zealand with two wickets to spare