Blues v. Warriors - Pura Cup

[Donny]

Katich has 15 from 16.

69 needed from 72 balls.

5 from the next over. 64 from 66. I need a drink.

6 singles from the next.

[Donny]

Katich has taken over while Steve has a rest. He has 44 from 34.

32 needed from 42 balls. Waugh is 111 n.o.

[Donny]

Katich goes to 53 from 38 balls with 2 fours from Blocker Wilson.

This is great stuff. Next 2 balls ? A 4 and a 2. 14 from the over.

18 needed from 6 overs. Amazing !!

Steve feels a bit left out and cover drives a beautiful 4 then puts the Kat back on strike. He hits 2 more fours !!

5 to get. Katich is 67 from 44 balls.

[Blanch]

Awesome effort I have to say. Being a sandgroper its hurts, but that would have been awesome to see.

S.Waugh = legend

[Donny]

Steve takes a single. Katich hits a four. All over.

Fantastic !!

Waugh 117 n.o. from 141 and Katich 71 from 45 - 54 in boundaries.

[Donny]

Not surprisingly, Simon Katich was named Man of the Match.

He scored 182 and 71 without being dismissed.

[couragous cloke]

wat a game! great coverage donny...

[Blanch]

Yeah top stuff Donny.

[Donny]

Waugh, Katich the heroes
By Malcolm Conn


STEVE WAUGH and Simon Katich blazed NSW to the most extraordinary victory over Western Australia as 511 runs were scored on the final day in Sydney.

When Justin Langer declared with an increasingly bold, unbeaten 163 against his name at 2.22pm yesterday, the match became a one-day game.

Needing 303 in 52 overs at almost six an over on a flat and friendly but slowly wearing wicket, NSW cantered home to win by five wickets with 4.4 overs to spare.

The ageless Steve Waugh was unbeaten on 117 from 141 balls with 15 fours and a six - his 10th century at Test and state level in as many months since saving his career in Sydney last January with a fairytale hundred against England.

No sooner had Waugh scored his century than Katich arrived at the crease with NSW 5-215 and still needing almost six an over. He took complete control of the match, as he did in the first innings with an unbeaten 182.

Man of the match, Katich required an X-ray on a thumb injured while fielding and there was some doubt that he would bat. But bat he did with a peerlessness which overshadowed Waugh, scoring an unbeaten 71 in just 45 balls with 12 fours and a six.

Waugh managed only 17 in their unbeaten sixth-wicket partnership of 88 in 42 minutes.

"He couldn't move his thumb," Waugh said later of Katich. "I said 'take a couple of Panadene Fortes and get out there'."

Waugh's innings included a rare and wonderfully executed hook shot. "I play one a year," Waugh said with a laugh.

Both captains should be congratulated on the way the game was played, reinforcing why Australian cricket is so vibrant, hard-fought and entertaining.

The young batsmen and bowlers in both teams will benefit from the helter-skelter afternoon of playing under pressure.

"That's always the way it should be played," said Waugh, who was unable to recall a day of his career when more first-class runs had been scored. "It's up to the captains to make sure it happens more often."

Langer agreed and said it was valuable experience for his relatively young and depleted attack.

"It ended up as a great game of cricket and it's a tribute to our domestic cricket," Langer said.

It is sad that a meagre crowd of little more than a hundred watched a game played with such selfless enterprise from both sides.

Langer celebrated his first decent score of the season by resuming on 81 and adding a further 82 in 103 balls. In all, he faced 236 balls with 18 fours and two sixes.

"I knew it was just a matter of time," Langer said. "Scoring runs is just about momentum. Now that I've got it, I can keep the momentum going, hopefully."

NSW had a strange start to their run chase, promoting fill-in wicketkeeper Nathan Pilon to open the batting with Michael Slater, who had his usual opening partner Greg Mail as a runner to protect a slightly strained hamstring.

When Slater went lbw for 17, seamer Don Nash came in as a pinch hitter. Pilon went dragging a ball on to his stumps for 17 then Nash departed for eight, leaving NSW 3-70.

In his first Pura Cup match for two seasons, Phil Jaques recovered from a first-innings duck to stroke an entertaining 43 (35 balls, seven fours) and Mark Waugh (13) failed twice in the match, bowled both times by left-arm wrist spinner Beau Casson, bringing Katich to the crease.

West Australian seamer John Taylor did not bowl a ball for the match because of a back strain while for NSW, two late withdrawals - Stuart MacGill and wicketkeeper Brad Haddin - will have fitness Tests on Monday before flying to Hobart for their next Pura Cup match, against Tasmania.