Queensland sneak home in thrilling finish

Queensland 8 for 247 (Perren 75, Law 57, MacGill 4-42) beat New South Wales 246 (Hauritz 4-52) by two wickets
Scorecard

Queensland dented New South Wales' prospects of a fourth straight ING Cup title with a thrilling two-wicket win in front of a big Telstra Stadium crowd. Queensland got home with two balls to spare in a match in which New South Wales' Matthew Nicholson won A$50,000 for hitting the sponsor's sign.

Queensland appeared to be cruising to victory through a fifth-wicket stand of 90 off 120 balls between Clinton Perren and James Hopes. However, Perren was needlessly run out by a direct hit from Dominic Thornely from mid-off after attempting a risky single. Hopes was then dismissed by Nathan Bracken, and Queensland suddenly needed 11 runs to win from as many balls.

Ashley Noffke and Michael Kasprowicz scrambled the remaining runs to put Queensland joint fourth in the table with South Australia on 13 points, one behind third-placed NSW.

The crowd of 26,190 was the largest ever for a one-day game in NSW, exceeding the figure of 25,763 for last season's first ING Cup fixture at Telstra Stadium between NSW and South Australia.

It was the second-biggest attendance ever for a domestic limited-overs game behind the 32,000 who witnessed the 1977 final between Western Australia and Victoria at the MCG.

Queensland got off to a flying start through Jimmy Maher, who scored 48 off 53 balls, and Stuart Law, who cracked 57 off 47. They compiled 112 in 16.4 overs, and the trio of Bracken, Stuart Clark and Nicholson conceded 85 runs off their first 12 overs.

However, Stuart MacGill and Aaron O'Brien triggered a collapse as Queensland lost four wickets for 17 runs before they squeezed home.

Nicholson struck an advertising sign on the western side of the ground as he lifted a delivery from Nathan Hauritz over deep midwicket. He became only the second player this season to hit the lucrative target after South Australia's Graham Manou, who achieved the feat twice. NSW officials said the prizemoney would go into a team pool to be divvied up at the end of the season with Nicholson earning the biggest share.

Most of the NSW batsmen were guilty of failing to build on a promising start. Steve Waugh made 48, Simon Katich 46, and Mark Waugh 37, but none could go on.

Openers Phil Jaques and Dominic Thornely put on 50 in just over 11 overs before both were caught by the debutant Craig Philipson off Noffke.

Hauritz took 4 for 52 and chewed through the bottom half of the order, though Mark Waugh and Nicholson, who smashed two sixes in his innings of 25 off 22 balls, boosted the total in the latter overs.