Western Australia prevail in tight finish

Western Australia 260 (Vogues 82, Harwood 5-40) beat Victoria 9 for 249 (Hodge 68, Lindsay 59, Vogues 2-27) by 11 runs
Scorecard

Adam Vogues top-scored with 82 and his two wickets fetched him the Man-of-the-Match award © Getty Images

Western Australia prevailed by 11 runs in a pulsating contest at Perth in their Ford Ranger Cup match against Victoria. Half centuries by Jon Moss and Grant Lindsay revived Victoria's chase after a middle-order hiccup but eventually fell short, as the asking rate climbed towards the end of the innings.

In pursuit of 261, Victoria didn't get off to an ideal start, losing their first two wickets with 28 on board. Brad Hodge and David Hussey stabilised the innings, adding 60 for the third wicket, maintaining a rate of over four an over. Ben Edmundson, back into the attack after an expensive first spell, immediately accounted for Hussey, caught by Adam Voges at backward point. Hodge brought up his fifty in the next over, coming off only 52 balls. Voges was in action again, bowling the well-set Hodge.

At 6 for 141, Victoria were in a spot of bother, before Moss and Lindsay then added exactly 100 for the seventh wicket, scoring at a healthy clip. Both scored 59, with Lindsay slamming three sixes in his knock which came at over a run a ball. However, Western Australia pulled things back in the 49th over, with the run out of Lindsay, still 20 runs adrift of the target.

Earlier, Shane Harwood, the promising Victorian fast bowler, had a good outing with a five-wicket haul, which helped restrict the opposition to a more manageable total. Voges and Luke Ronchi both scored half centuries, threatening to push the score past 300 but were pegged back by Harwood, who bowled with good pace and bounce.

Voges held the innings together once Ronchi departed with the score on 96, picking up singles regularly. His 82 included only four boundaries and he looked set for a century, but fell to Harwood's inspired spell towards the end of the innings, in which he picked up three wickets in six balls. Harwood finished with figures of 5 for 40.