Tasmania face uphill battle after Rogers century

Tasmania 94 and 1 for 107 (Di Venuto 69*) trail Western Australia 392 (Rogers 152, Pomersbach 74, Drew 6-94) by 191 runs
Scorecard

Chris Rogers continued his remarkable season with 152 to give Western Australia a lead of 298 after Tasmania's disastrous first innings. A six-wicket haul from Brendan Drew - his best first-class bowling performance - gave the Tigers a sliver of hope before Michael Di Venuto (69 not out) reduced the deficit to 191 at stumps.

Rogers resumed on 93 and took only five overs to raise his second century in 2006-07. The majority of his score came in boundaries - he hit 26 fours - as he pushed himself close to 800 runs in five matches this season and gave himself a buffer of nearly 250 from the second-highest run-scorer in the competiton, Brad Hodge.

Rogers and the debutant Luke Pomersbach, who impressed ten days ago by scoring a century in the tour match against the England XI, proved Tasmania's first-innings 94 was well below par. Pomersbach made 74 before giving Tim Paine his only catch in his first match as wicketkeeper for the home side.

Drew, whose bowling action bears an uncanny resemblance to Glenn McGrath, produced a quality spell towards the end of the innings. He put a stop to Rogers' fine effort and then picked up four late wickets to minimise the damage from the Western Australia lower order and finished with 6 for 94.