Victoria fall short despite spirited run-chase
Matthew Elliott and David Hussey scored centuries and led a spirited run-chase by Victoria, but in the end they fell short of their target, as Western Australia won by 46 runs at the Junction Oval in Melbourne
Cricinfo staff
04-Dec-2004
Western Australia 277 and 6 for 329 dec beat Victoria 152 and 408 (Elliott 120, Hussey 109*, Hodge 55, Harvey 4-89) by 46 runs
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Matthew Elliott and David Hussey scored centuries and led a spirited run-chase, but in the end Victoria fell short of their target, as Western Australia won by 46 runs at the Junction Oval in Melbourne.
Elliott led the way with his 120, but even after his dismissal, Hussey and Cameron White kept the innings going, adding 121 for the fifth wicket. At 4 for 368, Victoria had a realistic chance of doing a repeat of their performance against New South Wales in January this year, when they had chased down 455, exactly as many as they needed today.
Then, it all went pear-shaped for them. Kade Harvey trapped White in front for 30, and it was downhill from there. Victoria lost 6 wickets for 40, with Ian Harvey (4 for 89) and Steve Magoffin (3 for 49) being the stars for Western Australia. Hussey, who had scored 212 in that run-chase, was ultimately left undefeated on 109.
"I'm pretty disappointed, we set out today to win the game and we fell short so there's still a lot of work to go," he said after the match. "I still believed we could win the game with one wicket to go, so it's pretty disappointing."
Michael Hussey, the Western Australian captain, was expectedly thrilled with the outcome. "It would have been great to come in and roll them again, but I think the guys really learnt a lot about first-class cricket in Australia and we had to work really hard and it was very satisfying at the end of the day," he said. "Even when they were going pretty well and we took the second new ball after tea time, we still stuck at it and I think that's a trait of WA cricket."
This was Victoria's third defeat in four matches, and leaves them 14 behind Queensland, the leader. However, David Hussey wasn't unduly perturbed: "We've got to play Queensland twice, so why can't we take 12 points off them in two fixtures?" he said. "The season's well and truly alive for us."