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 off 40 overs.
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 - an average of 87 - with four centuries.
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 5-140 and 7-216.
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.
Fellow Tasmania pacemen Nathan Ellis (4-59 off 10) and Jackson Bird (1-43 off 10) also bowled well.
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 (2-39 off 8).
Left handers Caleb Jewell (20 off 20) and Jake Doran (31 off 34) 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 (2-40 off 10) and Adam Zampa (3-45 off 9) holding sway.
Top-scorer Mac Wright (32 off 60) broke the drought with a six but that was his only stroke of four or more in a cautious innings.
Green also contributed with two good catches and a direct hit run out of Beau Webster (21 off 33) from point, ending a 42-run with Wright, who was trapped lbw later in the over by Abbott.
