A sparkling maiden century from Moises Henriques lifted domestic One-Day Cup leaders New South Wales to a five-wicket win over Victoria with 13 balls to spare at North Sydney Oval.
Set 294 to win New South Wales were below the required run rate for large periods, but Henriques played a mature innings of 131 to help his side to victory and maintain a firm grip on top spot.
Henriques’ knock came off just 112 balls and included five sixes, before the Blues captain was eventually run out at the end of the 45th over.
Ben Rohrer (42no) and Ryan Carter (20no) helped the Blues over the line to their fourth win from as many matches.
The Victorians, desperately needing a win to revive their finals hopes, were put on the back foot by a quickfire fifth-wicket partnership of 94 between Rohrer and Henriques.
New South Wales had been struggling at 2 for 28, with Henriques and Peter Nevill putting on 127 runs for the third wicket before the latter was run out for 73.
Henriques’ match-winning knock overshadowed Cameron White who scored his second century in three innings as Victoria recovered from a mid-innings slump to set a competitive target of 294.
White top-scored for his side with 107, sharing in a 101-run partnership with Marcus Stoinis, who cracked 59 off 50 balls, as Victoria were dismissed off the final ball of the innings for 293.
The Victorians dramatically lifted their run-rate late in their innings, scoring 84 runs from the final 10 overs, thanks largely to some big-hitting from White, who brought up his century with one of his eight sixes, before being dismissed off the bowling of Doug Bollinger.
The Victorians opened in solid fashion with Rob Quiney making 50 as he and Dan Christian put on 80 for the opening wicket.
However, NSW quick Gurinder Sandhu took two wickets in one over to haul back the Victorians who slipped to 3-98.
The wickets were shared among the Blues’ bowling line-up with Pat Cummins collecting 3-52, Sandhu 2-58, while Bollinger boosted his figures with several late wickets to end with 4-78.
