One-day wonder: Hughes continues prolific form with another hundred
The opener scored his 10th List A century in just his 38th game
AAP
16-Feb-2023
Daniel Hughes raises his bat for another one-day hundred • Getty Images
New South Wales 291 (Hughes 126, Ellis 4-59, Rogers 4-62) beat Tasmania 189 (Zampa 3-45) by 102 runs
Birthday boy Daniel Hughes has continued his golden week and special one-day campaign as NSW demolished Tasmania's Cup final hopes with a 102-run win at North Sydney Oval.
Opener Hughes, who turned 34 on Thursday, celebrated by scoring 126 off 130 balls to help NSW to a score of 291 all out after winning the toss.
Tasmania, who would have risen from fourth to second with a win, were dismissed for 189.
NSW rose from sixth to fourth with the bonus point win, but the final-round match on Sunday week between South Australia (third) and Victoria (second) should determine who meet Western Australia in the final in Perth on March 8.
Coming off scores of 178 and 63 not out in the Sheffield Shield match between the two teams at the SCG earlier in the week, Hughes struck 15 fours and three sixes.
He was the mainstay of the NSW innings with no other player scoring more than 36 as NSW were dismissed in the final over.
Hughes notched his 10th domestic-one day century and boosted his competition-leading season run tally to 526 from six innings at an average of 87. He now has the second highest average in Australia's domestic one-day cricket behind Michael Bevan.
He was part of partnerships of 66 with Oliver Davies (36 off 41), 75 with Daniel Sams (33 off 45) and 65 with Ben Dwarshuis (34 off 25). The last two stands helped NSW recover from 5 for 140 and 7 for 216.
It was also a fruitful day for the competition's leading wicket-taker, with Tom Rogers (4-62 off 10 overs) moving eight clear of his closest rivals and swelling his season swag to 19.
Tasmania suffered a big blow off the second ball of their chase with Australia white ball representative Ben McDermott caught behind down the legside for a duck off Sean Abbott.
Left handers Caleb Jewell and Jake Doran put on 44 in fluent fashion but the Tasmanian innings subsided after that pair were dismissed.
The innings slowed to a crawl with almost 15 overs between boundaries and only 60 runs off 20, with spinners Chris Green and Adam Zampa holding sway.
Green also contributed with two good catches and a direct hit run out of Beau Webster from point, ending a 42-run with Mac Wright, who was trapped lbw later in the over by Abbott.