New South Wales has kept alive its hopes of reaching the final of the ING Cup by easily defeating Western Australia by six wickets in Wednesday night's match at the WACA Ground.

Dominic Thornely, man-of-the-match in the final of last year's competition and again on Wednesday night, led NSW to within sight of another appearance with a bright and brisk 74, ably assisted by rising star Michael Clarke in a fourth-wicket partnership of 111.

Clarke, touted by many as a big part of Australian cricket's future, showed why with some fabulous strokeplay in his unbeaten 74.

An early wobble, which saw Brad Williams claim two wickets including Steve Waugh (17), left NSW three for 58 and gave WA a faint hope.

But after debutant Peter Worthington dropped a skied Thornely drive when he was on 43, the result was not really in doubt.

The result means three teams still have a chance of making the final entering the last round of matches this weekend, with NSW, WA and Queensland all vying for finals spots.

And by knocking off their 204 target in 34.3 overs, NSW also claimed a bonus point to make the weekend matches even more intriguing with Queensland on 27 points, NSW 26 and WA 24.

After scoring only six with the bat in WA's disappointing total of 203, Worthington endeared himself to the home crowd with a fantastic piece of fielding to run out Brad Haddin (5) early in the NSW reply.

Former WA favourite Simon Katich (8) was then left fuming after being given caught behind off a Brad Williams delivery that would have been a leg side wide if it hadn't taken a wicket.

Katich clearly felt he did not make contact with the ball, and his body language made his feelings apparent to umpire Ian Lock.

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