Bulls' last-wicket pair hold on to force a draw

Queensland 259 and 9 for 170 (Maher 73, MacGill 5-72) drew with New South Wales 7 for 466 dec and 6 for 218 dec (Haddin 80*, Cowan 66)
Scorecard

Queensland's last-wicket pair of Nathan Hauritz and Joe Dawes hung on for 43 minutes to deny New South Wales an outright victory at Bankstown Oval in Sydney. Set an unrealistic 426 to win, the final pair joined at 9 for 156 and survived 69 balls to claim a gripping draw.

Stuart MacGill set up the the thrilling conclusion with 4 for 12 in 16 balls, but no bowler could get the final wicket, although Hauritz stood his ground to a huge appeal for a catch to Phil Jaques, the close-in fielder. "Not to get the six points is disappointing," Brad Haddin, the captain who did not enforce the follow-on when leading by 207, said. "We had 12 overs to get those last two out and you'd back yourself nine times out of 10. We had 70 overs to bowl them out so I don't think I would have changed anything."

Jimmy Maher, who top-scored with 73, was "baffled" when the Bulls weren't made to follow-on and praised the "never-say-die attitude" of Dawes (8 from 29 balls) and Hauritz (6 from 44). "Great character was shown by Dawes and Hauritz and the true Queensland fighting spirit came through," said Maher.

Haddin's lunch-time declaration came after his unbeaten 80 from 73 balls and Ed Cowan's 66. New South Wales claimed first-innings points yesterday to join Queensland on 28, two behind Western Australia, but the Blues are ahead on quotient.