New South Wales 7 for 366 dec (Patterson 102) and 4 for 298 (Abbott 83, Henriques 78*, Warner 69) beat South Australia 8 for 482 dec (Carey 125) and 6 for 178 dec by six wickets
A partnership of 141 between Moises Henriques and the promoted Sean Abbott secured New South Wales an impressive chase in Adelaide as they hunted down 295 with 11 balls to spare to propel the defending champions top of the table.
David Warner had set the base after South Australia declared shortly before lunch but after he and Kurtis Patterson had fallen either side tea the decision to elevate the in-form Abbott worked a treat in a perfectly-paced partnership.
The outcome rewarded New South Wales' decision to declare well behind on the third day and thereby opening up the chance for a chase while South Australia played their part by "dangling the carrot" as their coach Jason Gillespie put it rather than killing the match off.
"We definitely wanted to have a crack at that for most of the day and not shut up shop and they certainly needed win," Abbott said. "A sporting declaration, so good on Heady [Travis Head] for doing that.
"After spending a couple of days in the dirt I was more than happy to go out there and try and score some runs. Got together with Mo and things went our way. We faced a couple of tough spells, credit to them they created chances and beat the bat."
Nathan Lyon had struck with the second ball of the day with a terrific delivery to take Jake Weatherald's off stump and it proved difficult for South Australia to press the accelerator, not aided when Alex Carey was given run out to what was a very borderline call with no TV replays available. In the end they batted for 22 overs adding 85 runs.
New South Wales had few problems maintaining a run rate of four an over early on. Travis Head broke an opening stand of 59 when Nick Larkin miscued a pull, but Warner ensured the scoreboard kept moving with a 61-ball fifty although he slowed down significantly after that with his last 19 runs taking 45 deliveries before becoming a notable wicket for debutant Joe Medew-Ewen as he picked out deep midwicket.
Patterson then dragged on immediately after tea to give the Redbacks some hope as they also managed to squeeze the scoring rate but Henriques and Abbott did not panic, passing 600 and 500 runs respectively for the season. Henriques, who was given a life on 28, went to his fifty with an elegant lofted drive for six off Medew-Ewen and Abbott's second half-century of the game came from 52 balls.
