South Australia 426 (Hughes 118, Ferguson 80, Copeland 4-92, O'Keefe 3-93) and 4 for 100 (Ferguson 45*, Abbott 3-42) beat New South Wales 373 (Henriques 127, Rohrer 97, Mennie 4-60) and 148 (Putland 4-35) by 6 wickets

Scorecard

Phillip Hughes square drives during his half-century Getty Images

South Australia will enter the Big Bash League hiatus on top of the Sheffield Shield table after shrugging off an early wobble to complete a six-wicket victory over New South Wales at the SCG.

Early wickets to Sean Abbott left the Redbacks teetering at 4 for 31 in pursuit of 98 to win, before Callum Ferguson and the captain Johan Botha reprised their first innings contributions to take the visitors to outright points by lunch on the final day.

Phillip Hughes was named man of the match for his first innings 118, but SA were beneficiaries of an even performance in which most players had a hand at some point of the four days.

NSW, in second place on the table following their defeat, will rue a second innings slide to the swing bowling of Gary Putland and Chadd Sayers on day three, having started the match aggressively by surging to 373 on day one.

