After they were permitted to witness something of an act of self-destruction through the middle stages of their opponents' innings, New South Wales' cricketers have ensured that the North Sydney Oval remains a bogey venue for Tasmania with a 21 run win in the teams' Mercantile Mutual match there today. Defending a total of 9/277 which appeared to be no more than a moderate score given the tiny dimensions of the ground, the home team prevailed comfortably as they restricted the Tasmanians to 8/256 in reply on an excellent batting pitch.

Having been invited to bat first by rival skipper Jamie Cox, the home team found itself in early trouble at 2/21 before Corey Richards (70), Michael Bevan (46), Shane Lee (46) and Michael Slater (45) combined to stabilise and then add lustre to the effort. Continuing what has been a season of mixed fortunes for him, Richards was the star and his effort in holding the top order together before accelerating his scoring rate late in his innings was a fine one. Bevan also played particularly well and made the most of a dubious decision by Umpire Cameron to deny the Tasmanians what appeared a clear caught behind verdict when his score was just 13.

Tasmania received a strong start to the pursuit as Jamie Cox (54) and Ricky Ponting (26) steered it to a score of 1/85 at one point, but the needless run out of the latter after he slammed a ball straight to Bevan at cover in the nineteenth over and then attempted an always suicidal run sowed the seeds for a disappointing chase for the remainder of the afternoon. Against an attack led capably by speedster Brett Lee (2/40), Shane Lee (1/37) and the somewhat expensive leg spinner Stuart MacGill (2/64), the visitors continued to struggle to score runs quickly enough, they threw wickets away at regular intervals and, despite some outrageous late hitting from the normally patient Dene Hills (49* off 42 balls), could never really establish the requisite momentum required for them to claim a still elusive first ever win at this ground.