Kurtis Patterson is playing the best cricket of his life at the moment, with his title-winning purple patch coinciding with Marnus Labuschagne’s worrying red-ball slump.

The NSW stand-in captain lifted the Dean Jones Trophy on Wednesday evening after producing a match-winning performance during the low-scoring One-Day Cup final against Tasmania in Hobart, steering the Blues towards the awkward 119-run target despite an early stumble of 5-73. He received the Michael Bevan Medal, awarded to the player of the match, for his unbeaten 52 from 57 balls batting at No. 3 during the rain-affected contest, which ensured New South Wales won its first white-ball title in five years.

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“I don’t think it’s quite sunk in yet to be honest,” Patterson declared after the match.

“We were about ten minutes more rain away from not even getting on the field. It’s wild how the day panned out.

“The people who were allowed a phone in (the dressing rooms) were looking at that radar like you wouldn’t believe and trying to move the clouds with their hands. You get lucky sometimes.”

The triumph comes after Patterson struck consecutive hundreds during the Blues’ previous One-Day Cup matches against Tasmania and South Australia, performances that helped New South Wales qualify for the tournament decider.

The 32-year-old finished this season’s One-Day Cup as the leading run-scorer with 565 runs at 113.00, including three centuries.

“I think I’ve just found a nice rhythm to my one-day batting that I probably haven’t had in the past,” Patterson told Fox Cricket’s Domesticated this week.

“I’ve always been somewhat consistent in getting starts, but never really gone on and scored big hundreds, so it’s been nice to rectify that this year.

“I think feeling relaxed, being still and having confidence in my game has helped the season.”

The Blues qualified for the One-Day Cup final in extraordinary circumstances, needing to chase a 275-run target within 40 overs to secure a bonus-point win against Tasmania in Hobart last month.

Courtesy of Patterson’s 68-ball century, which included six fours and three sixes, NSW only needed 31 overs to get the job done.

“It was quite frantic at the break,” Patterson recalled.

“We had analysts back in Sydney figuring out the (required) net run rate and everyone throwing out their opinion before we actually knew what the number was, and eventually before the openers went out, we got it down to 40 overs.

“We knew we had to maximise the Powerplay. We knew that was going to be our best chance to win the game. And we went out there and executed, which is always the most important thing.”

Patterson guides NSW to ODI Cup win | 01:30

Patterson made his international debut in 2019, playing two Tests against Sri Lanka and scoring a century at Manuka Oval during the series finale. However, the left-hander was dropped ahead of Australia’s following Test assignment to accommodate Steve Smith’s return from the Cape Town ball-tampering ban.

He currently averages 144.00 in Tests, an all-time record.

Asked if he was better placed to tackle the challenges of Test cricket than he was seven years ago, Patterson responded: “I’m playing my best cricket at the moment, there’s no doubt about that.

“Back when I was selected (in 2019), I was in one of those rare purple patches you get in your career when I was coming off four hundreds in the previous month, so I was certainly picked at the right time, and it was nice to get that Test hundred under my belt early on.

“But I’m more mature. I’ve got a more complete game now, and I’ve got the confidence that I’ve done it in the past when I was selected.”

Following an underwhelming 2022/23 summer with the bat, Patterson was dropped from the NSW side towards the end of 2023, returning to grade cricket with St George. He fought his way back into the Blues starting XI towards the start of the 2024/25 and hasn’t looked back, since accumulating 1297 Sheffield Shield runs at 44.72 and earning Australia A selection.

Patterson also boasts the highest individual score of this season’s Sheffield Shield, an unbeaten 173 against reigning champions South Australia at the SCG.

“The line in the sand was drawn for me when I was dropped, and I needed that line to be drawn,” Patterson said.

“Sometimes it’s really hard to do it when you’re constantly trying to figure things out and grind through Shield cricket. It’s not the place to figure out areas of your game that need to be figured out.

“You need to step away, and for me, it was playing club cricket, getting back into the rhythm of scoring hundreds with my club side, and as simple as it sounds, just figure out the things that I was doing poorly.

“There were a few little bad habits that had crept into my game and I was able to rectify those and felt like I came back with a really clean head, a bit of a clean slate and some new-found confidence in my game.

“So it’s been nice to get some runs. I would have liked a few more, particularly in this Shield season, but I think that’s the game. You’re never satisfied as a batter in this sport.”

“Still Standing’: Shipperd on NSW win | 02:30

Patterson’s career-best form comes as Labuschagne struggles in the red-ball format, with the Queenslander scoring 398 runs at 22.11 at first-class level since the end of October, managing just three fifties across 18 knocks during that period. The Australian Test No. 3 hasn’t scored a Test hundred in nearly three years.

With veteran batter Usman Khawaja recently announcing his international retirement and opener Jake Weatherald fighting to keep his spot in the national side, there could be vacancies in the Australian Test top-order next summer.

And Patterson wants to throw his hat in the ring.

“The motivation’s there,” Patterson said.

“That was part of that process 18 months ago when I had some time to think through why I was playing and what my motivations were, and doing everything I can to get back in that Australian side was a big one.

“It’s an exciting time for any first-class batters out there at the moment.

“There’s a lot of Test cricket coming up over the next 18 months. Obviously Usman’s retired, so there’s a spot there, and like always I think it’s scoring runs at the right time. Scoring runs this back-end of the season when there’s finals on, the business-end of the season is always a good thing to be doing.

“I’ll be looking forward to taking that opportunity if it does come.”

The Blues, having failed to qualify for the Sheffield Shield final, will play their last match of the season this weekend, hosting Western Australia for a four-day contest at Silverwater’s Cricket Central. It will be Greg Shipperd’s final game as NSW coach, with Patterson set to lead the side again in the absence of injured captain Jack Edwards.

Despite Patterson’s white-ball excellence, his most recent first-class scores have been 33, 17, 12 and 7. He knows this week’s Sheffield Shield contest in Sydney will be his last chance to send a message to the national selectors before the winter break.

“I’ve got to put runs on the board, I’ve got to score more red-ball runs, that’s for sure,” he said.

The match gets underway on Saturday at 10.30am AEDT.