New South Wales crumble yet again.

Another dismal collapse by the most successful state in Australian cricket history, New South Wales, saw Victoria handed a 148-run win in the Pura Milk Cup match at the Sydney Cricket Ground today.

Sixteen wickets fell in little more than three hours today, with the Blues, chasing a realistic target of 265 to win in 91 overs, bundled out for just 116. Apart from Michael Bevan (43*), no other NSW batsman lasted at the crease for more than half an hour. Victorian captain Paul Reiffel put in a fine early spell, taking 3/23 to add to his 4/74 in the first innings to win man of the match.

Victoria collapsed in the first hour of play today from their overnight score of 4/149 to be all out for 178, Stuart MacGill (3/34) and Jamie Heath (3/37) cleaning up the tail. Any thoughts of a morning declaration were put aside following the Victorian collapse, but the NSW bats squandered any prospect of chasing a competitive target.

Bevan, who also scored 132 in the first innings, stood out among the NSW lineup. It is curious that he was the only New South Welshman in the Australian ODI squad to tour New Zealand who was not "rested" for this match. The Waugh twins, the Lee brothers, and Glenn McGrath (who has not played a shield match for NSW since October 1997) were all allowed to sit this one out.

The other outstanding batsman of this match was Victoria's Matthew Mott, who followed up his first-innings 148 with a dashing 99-ball 77. His second innings knock was completed in the late Saturday afternoon gloom, rain delays forcing play yesterday to continue until 7.44pm under floodlights.

As a result of this win, Victoria are now almost certain to take second place on the Pura Milk Cup ladder and face Queensland in the final at Allan Border Field, Brisbane. They still have a remote mathematical possibility of claiming first spot on quotients, and likewise either Western Australia or South Australia have a slim chance of bumping them out of the finals.

One thing for certain after today's result is that Tasmania are now out of finals contention. New South Wales' hold on the wooden spoon is looking a whole lot firmer after today's dismal display.