McDonald keeps his cool to send Victoria top

Victoria 326 and 230 for 8 (Moss 63, Hussey 50) beat New South Wales 287 and 268 by two wickets
Scorecard

Victoria survived a near-fatal case of the batting wobbles to beat New South Wales by two wickets at the MCG and jump to the top of the table. Andrew McDonald took two off the last ball of Stuart Clark's first over after tea to take Victoria top.

In a nailbiting finish, Victoria lost 5 wickets for 28 runs before tea and went to the break - amid boos from an impatient crowd - needing only two runs to win. McDonald remained cool after the interval, but it could have ended disastrously for Victoria, who were cruising at 3 for 200 with Jonathan Moss and David Hussey in full flight.

Moss and Hussey hit 16 fours and three sixes in a sparkling 106-run stand before Hussey (50) became the first of three wickets in eight balls. Moss went for 63, Ian Harvey for a pair, and to complete the wobble, Peter Roach was run out after McDonald hit the ball to mid-on and charged down the pitch, despite Roach's hesitance.

But McDonald's timely 16 not out sent Victoria to equal top spot with Tasmania, on 14 points from four matches, with percentage giving Victoria the top spot. It could not have been a more heart-wrenching day for NSW however, as despite their valour in defending, the reigning champions left the MCG with less than what they started with.

NSW are likely to be docked one point for a slow over-rate - meaning they will go to the bottom of the table despite calls from captain Mark Waugh for leniency for bowling his strike bowlers. "I was trying to win the game," Waugh said. "I think there's something wrong with the rule if you don't try and win the game and bowl your best bowlers.

"When they needed 40 and they hit a couple of fours off (Matthew) Nicholson, I thought about bringing (medium pacer) Greg Mail and someone else on, but then we got a wicket so I thought 'you play cricket to win the game', so I'm not going to not bowl my best bowlers for the sake of the run-rate."

Cameron White, Victoria's captain, said his team had no plan at tea other than to get two runs. "I could barely watch to be honest, I was pretty nervous," he said. White added the successful run-chase would instil enormous confidence in his side ahead of a tough match against Western Australia at Perth, starting on Saturday, with White and Brad Hodge away on Australia A duty.

White said: "I think it'll be good for the team to chase that total and get over the line, you'd like to do that two or three (wickets) down, but it's good to know that we can do that now."