Bird has milestone day as NSW take down Victoria

Jackson Bird became only the fifth man to take 400 Sheffield Shield wickets before bowling NSW to a crucial 76-run win over Victoria at the SCG.

On a chaotic third day in Sydney, Victoria claimed 6-40 in the opening 90 minutes to have NSW all out for 174 and set up a fourth-innings chase of 231.

Scott Boland was the star, taking 6-46 to make it 10 wickets for the match as he continued to press his claims for a full-time spot in Australia's Test team.

But any hopes Victoria had of Boland's spell being enough to set up the victory on Thursday were quickly crushed by Bird and his 5-68.

Victoria slumped to 5-31 inside 13 overs in the chase, with Bird taking four of the first five wickets on his record-breaking day.

The NSW veteran had his milestone wicket in the fifth over, when he had Marcus Harris edging behind on six.

He removed Tom Rogers at slip a few balls later before also dismissing Peter Handscomb and Harry Dixon to rip the heart out of Victoria.

Bird also had Fergus O'Neill caught in the deep late to claim his five-wicket haul, as the Blues closed in on victory.

"It probably means I've been around for a long time, but it's nice to tick off the milestones along the way," Bird said after play. 

"But the goal of mine now is to win a Sheffield Shield.

"I've never won one, so that's more important to me at the moment and it's what's driving me to keep playing at my age."

Bird's wickets made him the first bowler to debut in the 21st century and take 400 Shield wickets.

Remarkably, his average of 21.92 also remains the best of anyone with over 250 scalps in the competition.

Some seven years after his last Test for Australia, the 38-year-old's success came on his return from a hamstring injury.

The seamer remains the second highest wicket-taker in the Shield this summer with 30 at 13.96, headlined by a return of 7-56 against South Australia in November.

But even with that success, he concedes this could be his last summer.

"I'm just taking it game by game at the moment. So, yeah, I didn't have much left in the tank after this afternoon," Bird said.

"I've had a couple of niggles this year. So I'll probably reassess at the end of the year. 

"(The wickets) cloud your judgment a little bit. You probably think you're probably going better than what you actually are and you think you're feeling good. 

"I don't want to hang on too long ... It'll be whether I can mentally do another pre-season. 

"And if I do play next year, it'll probably look different in terms of my availability."

Liam Hatcher also bagged 2-29 for the Blues and Jack Edwards 3-28, with the latter in particular striking at crucial times.

The Blues' victory moves them to second with two rounds to play, with only one victory still separating them from last spot.

Sheffield Shield standings 2024-25

Team	Matches played M	Wins W	Losses L	Drawn D	No results N/R	Deductions Ded.	Batting Bonus Bat	Bowling Bonus Bowl	Total points PTS
1 South Australia Men SA	10	6	1	3	0	0	7.61	9	55.61
2 Queensland Bulls QLD	10	3	3	4	0	0	9.06	8.7	39.76
3 Victoria Men VIC	10	4	5	1	0	0	5.19	9.3	39.49
4 NSW Men NSW	10	3	4	3	0	0	6.99	8.4	36.39
5 Tasmanian Tigers Men TAS	10	3	5	2	0	0	7.72	8.2	35.92
6 Western Australia Men WA	10	3	4	3	0	0	5.83	8.6	35.43

Legend

M: Matches played

W: Wins

L: Losses

D: Drawn

N/R: No results

Ded.: Deductions

Bat: Batting Bonus

Bowl: Bowling Bonus

PTS: Total points