New South Wales 238 (Davies 89, Boland 4-56) and 174 (Gilkes 49, Boland 6-46) beat Victoria 182 (Bird 3-24) and 154 (Murphy 40, Bird 5-68) by 76 runs

Bird claimed 5 for 68 on the third day, making full use of a surface that was getting tougher to bat on, as Victoria were bowled out for 154 chasing 230, the margin only narrowed by a late dip from Todd Murphy who flayed 40 off 32 balls.

Bird's first wicket of the final innings, finding the edge of Marcus Harris, took him to his milestone as he joined Clarrie Grimmett, Michael Kasprowicz, Andy Bichel and Jo Angel as the only bowlers in the 400-club.

"It probably means I've been around a long time," Bird said. "It's nice to tick off the milestones along the way, but when you have a good win like that with a team, it makes it more special. So it's a great team effort.

"It's nice to be in that [400] group. But the goal of mine now is to win a Sheffield Shield. I've never won a Sheffield Shield, so that's more important to me at the moment and it's what's driving me to keep playing at my age."

Bird, 38, indicated that any decision on whether he would continue his career would be made at the end of the season. "I'm just taking it game by game at the moment," he said. "I didn't have much left in the tank after this afternoon. I don't want to hang on too long. Whether I can mentally do another pre-season. If I do play next year, it'll probably look different in terms of my availability."

None of Victoria's top five reached double figures as they slid to 31 for 5 which effectively decided the contest. Bird had Tom Rogers taken at first slip, Harry Dixon miscuing a pull and forced Peter Handscomb to fend a viciously rising delivery into the cordon. He later returned to remove Fergus O'Neill for his fifth wicket and finished the game with a season's tally of 30 at 13.96.

The victory pushed NSW into second place in what looks like a race to play South Australia in the final. It was Victoria's third consecutive loss leaving them a tough route to the final with games against the leaders, SA, and an away trip to Western Australia.

"Dropping Ollie Davies in the first innings cost us quite a bit," coach Chris Rogers said. "With our batting we lost a number of wickets in and around breaks and just probably not up to the standard we needed to be if we're going to win games of cricket. We've got a lot of questions we need to answer.

"Playing our last Shield game against Queensland before the BBL break I didn't imagine us being in this position. We've only got ourselves to blame. It's frustrating and shows how competitive this league is. We've let too many moments slip and we need to question why that's happening."