MacGill stars in Waughs' final one-day outing

New South Wales 2 for 212 (Jaques 75, Thornely 70*, S Waugh 50*) beat Tasmania 210 (Watson 56, MacGill 4-55, Nicholson 3-45) by 8 wickets
Scorecard

Stuart MacGill, airbrushed out of the one-day picture by Australia's selectors, picked up 4 for 55 as New South Wales marked the Waugh twins' final appearance in coloured clothing with a crushing eight-wicket victory over Tasmania at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Chasing a modest 211, New South Wales rampaged to their target in just 26.1 overs, inspired by Phil Jaques's 44-ball 75, and an unbeaten 70 from Dominic Thornely. But 4753 spectators saved their loudest cheers for Steve Waugh, who slammed eight fours and a six in a 44-ball 50 not out.

"It's nice, Sydney's a good place to get a few runs, there was a good crowd today so it was enjoyable," said Waugh, whose team were already out of contention to defend their ING Cup title. "It would have been nice for Mark to have a hit at the end," he added.

Asked if he was tempted to push Mark up the order, he grinned and replied, "Not really, no. The other guys are going well. Phil Jaques is going really well. There was a temptation to open with the Waugh brothers but you can't mess around too much with everyone."

MacGill's four-wicket haul moved him just one wicket behind Western Australia's Jo Angel on the alltime domestic bowling list with 93 victims from 46 one-day matches. Angel needed 74 games for his 94 scalps. MacGill, who wasn't even in contention for the one-dayers in Sri Lanka, finished the ING Cup season with unmatched figures of 20 wickets at 15.9.

After his first over went for ten, he found his rhythm to dismiss Daniel Marsh, George Bailey, Shannon Tubb and Scott Kremerskothen. Tasmania owed their total to Shane Watson (56) and Michael Di Venuto (46), but with Matthew Nicholson (3 for 45) also among the wickets, the innings was a stop-start affair.

Jaques ensured that the match would be a no-contest by thrashing a 31-ball half-century, second this year only to Stuart Law's 26-ball effort for Queensland at Hobart.

MacGill hasn't played ODIs for Australia since winning three caps in 1999-2000, but his performance at the SCG was special enough to merit leading the side in at the interval, despite the day being set up for the Waugh twins. Mark didn't get a bat, but Steve signed off on the right note, albeit in a match that meant very little as far as the big picture was concerned.