On another day for the bowlers at Punt Road, Victoria has shaken off some poor early season form to secure a tense two wicket win over New South Wales in the teams' Mercantile Mutual Cup match today. Secured with forty-nine deliveries to spare, it was never the comfortable victory that the locals might have been expecting though after they had earlier skittled the Blues for the miserable total of 129.

Virtually from the time that Michael Slater (0) and Brad Haddin (7) threw their wickets away with wild strokes at paceman Michael Lewis inside the first six overs, this was a match full of unexpected twists and turns.

In cool weather and under mackerel-coloured skies, the hosts gained a significant advantage by winning the toss and they duly placed the New South Welshmen under pressure from the outset. While the conditions were helpful, however, clearly no-one was anticipating the Blues' much-vaunted batting line-up to be disassembled as easily as it was through the morning.

For the previously undefeated New South Wales, captain Steve Waugh (36) attempted to hold the middle order together with a typically resolute innings and Mark Higgs (22*) worked hard near the end. But it was not enough. There was only one partnership of any real note - a stand of forty-nine between the Waugh brothers for the third wicket - and, even in that association, both players were granted lives with dropped catches early in their respective innings.

Before succumbing to a groin injury at the end of his ninth over, Colin Miller (3/19) was the pick of the bowlers. His heady variation proved too much for the New South Wales middle and lower order, and Shane Lee (17), Corey Richards (10) and Brett Lee (4) were all guilty of being fooled into playing across the line at him. Pacemen Lewis (2/24 from seven overs), Ben Oliver (1/32 off nine) and Ian Harvey (2/14 from six) were also particularly impressive, the latter making two crucially important strikes when he dismissed Mark Waugh (17) and Michael Bevan (0) with successive deliveries in the eighteenth over.

The Bushrangers then made extraordinarily heavy weather of the chase. Jason Arnberger (3) and Brad Hodge (13) were the victims of bad errors in running between the wickets, Matthew Mott (10) and Ian Harvey (21) played poor shots to be bowled, and Shawn Craig (5) failed to make any capital out of having been dropped one delivery before losing his off bail to Stuart MacGill (2/26 from ten overs).

Having crashed to a dismal 5/60 on the back of those dismissals, the home team depended largely for its success on the maturity that youngsters Oliver (29) and Michael Klinger (19) displayed in a dogged thirty-nine run partnership for the sixth wicket. Oliver sweated on loose deliveries well, chiselling out some lovely cuts through the off side and punching a number of strokes beautifully over the leg side field. Klinger played straight for the most part, driving well in the arc between mid on and mid off.

But both players ultimately lost their off stumps to lazy shots at balls cutting back in them and the match was suddenly re-ignited for the umpteenth time. The delivery that conjured Oliver's demise was a particular standout in the midst of a blistering late spell from Brett Lee (3/42 off ten overs) that again threatened to tilt the result back the Blues' way. The speedster also undid Paul Reiffel (1), with the Vics still needing ten to win at that point, amid a three over spell laden with stinging yorkers and off cutters.

In the crisis, the cool head of the experienced Darren Berry (14*) finally saw the home team across the line. With the field up, it was the veteran wicketkeeper-batsman who was able to provide the finishing touches with two neat shots behind the wicket and then a lofted off drive which brought a delighted local crowd to its feet. By that point, he had ensured that there was simply no more time for one last desperate twist in the tail.

© 2000 CricInfo Ltd