The National Under-19 Championship Series Final is evenly balanced with just two sessions remaining in an engrossing match between New South Wales and Queensland at Newcastle. At lunch on the final day of the tournament, the Queenslanders are at 2/43 as they pursue New South Wales' total of 242.

The Blues' lower order resumed at 8/210 at the Number 1 Sportsground this morning, and again provoked frustration for their opposing bowlers by eating up more than an hour of play before surrendering a wicket. As it happened, another then fell just two deliveries later to finally put a seal on the innings.

But, by then, Daniel Christian (68) and James Allsopp (28) had heroically lifted the home team to a position which was strong enough to ensure that Queensland's quest to snare a third consecutive national title would be a difficult one through the afternoon.

Left arm paceman Chris Summers (2/9) was the successful bowler, trapping the plucky Christian in front of his stumps and then finding the outside edge of Allsopp's bat with only one further run added to the total. But the wickets came after around 70 minutes of play today, minimising the time available to the visitors to chase down the runs.

New South Wales, for its part, simply needs to draw this match to clinch the title for the first time since 1998-99.

Queensland's cause wasn't improved when opener Nathan Kruger (9) lost his wicket early in the reply to fast bowler Aaron Bird.

And another major setback arrived ten minutes before lunch when captain Craig Philipson (8) chased an outswinger from Adam Fleming to edge a catch to wicketkeeper Allsopp.

Aaron Maynard (18*) and Greg Moller (7*) adopted an attacking approach in the shadows of the break to add an unbroken 14 runs in better than even time for the third wicket. Critically, Moller was dropped by Brett Eriksson high to his right at slip off Fleming's bowling in the final over before the break. And how severely the New South Welshmen are made to pay for that miss might well go a long way to settling the outcome of the contest.

The day had dawned a touch overcast in Newcastle but fine and sunny conditions have slowly taken over. It means that the Queenslanders should have available to them a full four hours to score the extra 200 runs they need to whisk away the title yet again.

© 2001 CricInfo Ltd