Patterson, Cowan claim draw for NSW

A charge from Ed Cowan at No. 9 and a middle-order resistance from Kurtis Patterson and Sean Abbott thwarted Victoria's bid for their first win of the season, as New South Wales batted over 100 overs to cling to a draw in Sydney.

Resuming from 2 for 46 on the last day after being set a 468-run target, NSW lost Maddinson to seamer Scott Boland. Abbott (47 off 171 balls) then went on to stitch a 74-run partnership with Patterson, who battled on at the other end. Patterson had found most of his runs through fours- 60 of his 61 runs came from boundaries. Chris Tremain broke the partnership with the wicket of Abbott, and Victoria made more inroads, quickly reducing NSW from 3 for 161 to 181 for 7, including the wicket of Patterson.

With Victoria only three wickets away, Cowan and Steve O'Keefe grinded it out and played for time, with a 34-run partnership that lasted a little over 13.2 overs. Once O'Keefe was dismissed, Trent Copeland stuck it out with Cowan (40 off 99 balls) to avert a loss for NSW.

"The plan was to park at one end, and with the tail it was to draw and take some singles to break up their [opposition's] rhythm so that they can't tactically do the same thing to us, and that seemed to work," Cowan said about batting down the order on the day. "It was a flat wicket, but it wasn't absolutely diabolical, so we prepared to stead better, and got through."