Bulldog spirit sees NSW home in Cup final

Steve and Mark Waugh hail from Bankstown and are ardent followers of the Sydney Bulldogs rugby league team which also come from the region. The comparison is apt as the performance of NSW since Steve Waugh returned from Test duty to captain the side has been bulldog-like.

Slowly their train gathered momentum until it arrived at the Gabba for the final as a runaway express. This is as opposed to the Bulls whose campaign for a fourth straight Cup were derailed.

NSW began the season well winning two of their first three games. They then stuttered. Chasing 283 for victory against South Australia, they were bowled out for 255 after only Michael Slater, Michael Bevan and Don Nash made it into double figures. They rebounded against Tasmania with a 22-run win but the signs were not good when they were dismissed for 86 in the second innings.

Against Victoria at home, they were bowled out twice for 141 and 150. Double figures was reached just seven times in NSW's two innings. From their first six games, they had just 18 points.

In the same time, Queensland had played seven games and had 34 points. They had won points in every match they had played. Their bowling attack was the most potent in the country and they had some useful batsman with Martin Love the pick of them. Two double centuries against the touring English had seen him selected for Australia.

The Bulls were a great team and when in trouble were bailed out time and time again by their never say die attitude. Against Western Australia they were six for 112 in response to WA's 228. Wade Secombe rallied with Ashley Noffke, Michael Kasprowicz and Joe Dawes to take the score to 331.

It was the lower-order who bailed them out again when they played the return match at the WACA. WA scored 107 in the first innings but had the Bulls a perilous four for 35. Clinton Perren, Joe Hopes, Secombe and Adam Dale were the only players to make double figures as Queensland found themselves with a 44-run first innings lead and ended up winning the match by seven wickets.

If it wasn't Perren making runs, it was Love or Lee Carseldine or James Hopes. And if they couldn't do it, there was always the lower-order of Noffke or Dale or Kasprowicz, almost always marshalled by the feisty Secombe.

But then the World Cup squad left taking with them five Queenslanders in the shape of Matthew Hayden, Andrew Bichel, Andrew Symonds, Jimmy Maher and, due to Shane Warne's demise, Nathan Hauritz.

NSW's season was turned around with an incredible two-run win over the seemingly hapless WA. Steve Waugh threw Simon Katich the ball and he responded with a five-wicket haul. The Warriors lost six for 24 to hand NSW a lifeline.

The next game against Victoria yielded no points to them but they went across the Nullarbor for the ING cup final and a Pura Cup match. They won both and had a two-wicket win to go with their earlier two-run win against WA.

Queensland lost to the Redbacks and defeated the Bushrangers before going to Sydney for the last game of the season. NSW needed a win to make the final. Queensland were hampered by the loss of Stuart Law, Dawes and Dale.

Things were looking terrible for NSW when they were dismissed for 102 but they ended up playing fantastic cricket from there on end to win the game by 241 runs.

Queensland's luck had all run out. Injury ruled out Law and Hopes for the final.

NSW were sent in on a green top and made 282, but in the conditions that was worth 482. The Queensland batting crumbled again and had they not avoided the follow-on by two runs, the match would have been over in two days.

In the two back-to-back games against NSW, Queensland had lost four wickets for 637 in 206.3 overs.

NSW could not put a foot wrong in their pursuit of the final. Steve Waugh's bowling changes yielded instant results even when he gave the ball to unlikely candidates such as Katich, Greg Mail and Michael Clarke.

Queensland's batting fell in a heap. Not once did they post 400 in their final four games with their 349 against Victoria their highest in that period.

This poor form was transmitted to their bowling. After bowling out the opposition 12 times in their first seven games, they only did this once in their final three regular season matches.

Queensland's batting wilted badly. Brendan Nash could only manage 90 from his final 10 innings. After being a gun for most of the season, Perren scored just 55 in his last four bats of the season. When they needed him most, Love made just two and 13 in the final. Most importantly for NSW, they managed to extinguish the lower-order threats of Carseldine, Secombe and Kasprowicz and Noffke.

Steve Waugh had options galore in attack. Nash, Clark or Bollinger would normally make the breakthrough allowing Stuart MacGill to do the rest.

History should look fondly on this NSW side of 2002/03. They won three games away from home in the home and away component and took out the final away as well. To win the final away isn't easy because not only are you conceding everything that goes along with home ground advantage but you are doing so against the best team in the competition.

To have won the final so convincingly is testament to the greatness of this side. A fine blend of youth and experience in both batting and bowling, it also helped they were ably led by one of the best captains the game has ever seen.