Michael Bevan should eclipse another one-day milestone tomorrow when his New South Wales Blues take a winning Gabba record into the ING Cup clash with Queensland.

Bevan needs just seven runs to reach the 2000-run mark in domestic one-day matches, enhancing his reputation as one of the most effective batsmen in the shortened form of the game.

Five batsmen have already passed 2000 runs, but none has matched Bevan's performances in the international arena.

The left-hander averages 57.28 in his 164 matches for Australia - the best mark of any international batsman to have played more than five matches - and he will prove a genuine test for Queensland's bowlers tomorrow.

The Bulls tamed Bevan during their comfortable win in the four-day Pura Cup match earlier this week in a rare double failure for the 31-year-old.

"You can't score runs every game but we rely pretty heavily on Bevo and he's been the man for us in a lot of situations," Blues captain Shane Lee said.

"That's the way it is but our one-day form has been very good and I can't remember the last game we lost here."

The Blues haven't lost at the Gabba since October 1996, bucking the trend at a ground which has become a killing field for Queensland.

Lee kept the winning run intact two years ago when he smashed an excellent century to beat a Queensland team which had been cruising at 0-189.

Sports bookmakers expect tomorrow's match to be a preview of February's final, particularly after the Bulls almost rolled a full-strength NSW in Sydney two weeks ago.

"We probably should have won it - we lost it rather than they won it - so it should be a good one-day contest," Bulls captain Stuart Law said.

The Blues sit atop the table on 13 points, four ahead of Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia.

Tomorrow's clash coincides with the beginning of the third Test between Australia and New Zealand in Perth but eight of the ACB's 25 contracted players will be at the Gabba.

Discarded Test opener Michael Slater will also shoulder some hopes for the Blues along with explosive batsmen Brad Haddin and Mark Higgs.

The Bulls are expected to bracket Martin Love with Jimmy Maher at the top of the batting order in the absence of Test opener Matthew Hayden.

Maher is also nearing a milestone, needing 21 runs to overtake Hayden as Queensland's most profilic one-day runscorer.

That would push Maher into second place on the Australian all-time list behind Darren Lehmann.

QUEENSLAND: Stuart Law (capt), Jimmy Maher, Martin Love, Clinton Perren, Andrew Symonds, Brendan Nash, James Hopes, Wade Seccombe, Ashley Noffke, Nathan Hauritz, Michael Kasprowicz, Joe Dawes.

NEW SOUTH WALES: Shane Lee (capt), Brad Haddin, Michael Slater, Michael Bevan, Michael Clarke, Mark Higgs, Graeme Rummans, Shawn Bradstreet, Stuart MacGill, Don Nash, Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark.

© 2001 AAP