NSW keep final race open

New South Wales 268 and 4 for 150 (Rohrer 38*) beat Victoria 128 and 289 (White 73, Hussey 62, O'Keefe 3-54, Copeland 3-74) by six wickets
Scorecard

New South Wales kept the race to host the Sheffield Shield final well and truly open by rolling to victory over Victoria inside three days at the MCG.

After nine games, the Victorians still lead the table on 28 points but their defeat can allow Queensland and South Australia to pass them or Western Australia to draw close in the remaining two games of the penultimate round.

The Bushrangers started the day with the chance of setting a testing target with Cameron White and David Hussey at the crease, but both were to depart early at the hands of Steve O'Keefe and Gurinder Sandhu.

From there the visitors mopped up the innings effectively, leaving themselves a chase for only 150 to take the six points.

At 3 for 60 the pursuit looked a little shaky, but the captain Ben Rohrer, Peter Nevill and Brad Haddin played nervelessly to reel it in.