NSW set tall order to win Pura Cup - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

NSW set tall order to win Pura Cup

By Hamish Esplin 03/03/2003 05:46:28 PM Comments (0)

NSW faces the daunting task of beating defending champion Queensland twice in two weeks to win its first domestic four-day cricket title in almost a decade.

The Blues secured a thrilling two-wicket victory over Western Australia to move to 30 points on the table and ensure their Pura Cup hopes remain alive when they host the Bulls in the final round of matches on Thursday.

Victoria, which lost to Queensland at the weekend, also sits on 30 points and has to beat WA in Melbourne to make the final.

If NSW and Victoria fail to take any points from their respective clashes, then NSW will move through to the final courtesy of more outright victories than the Bushrangers.

But to make the final, NSW will most likely need an outright victory over Queensland which, with 40 points, has a guaranteed spot as host.

"We really don't care about the opposition results because if we can't win here we probably won't win up in Queensland," Blues coach Steve Rixon told AAP.

"We've got to make sure we take them on our home turf, build some sort of psychological advantage from it and obviously get in there and do the business."

Rixon said his side's confidence had lifted since its seven-wicket victory in the shortened version of the game, the ING Cup, last week.

"If we can (win) comprehensively, it will have a psychological scar (on Queensland) and we'd like to think we're playing good enough cricket to do that," he said.

"We've just won a one-day competition and the boys are very keen to make it a double for the year."

Brought to you by AAP AAP © 2024 AAP

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