Hodge, Arnberger drive Bulls to distraction

Victorian batsmen Brad Hodge (103*) and Jason Arnberger (100) have crafted a superb 190-run partnership to lead their team into a strong position by the end of day one of the Pura Cup clash against Queensland here at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The pair's twin centuries powered the Bushrangers to a total of 3/237 on a day when the Bulls were noticeably hampered by the absence of several of their leading bowlers.

Continuing a phenomenal start to the season, it was Hodge who played the defining innings of the day. All-rounder Leigh Carseldine (0/37) beat him once in late afternoon as he pulled over the top of a short ball lazily, but it was one of the few deliveries that discomforted him. Many innings have passed since he burst on to the Australian first-class scene as an eighteen year old with 991 runs at an average in excess of fifty in 1993-94. But rarely, if ever, has he looked as commanding as he has in recent weeks. Again today, he was solid in defence and severe in his punishment whenever the bowlers erred in length. His driving was faultless.

All the while, he swelled his first-class aggregate for the season to 597 runs. It is a measure of his current productivity that, in just his fifth match, he has already easily surpassed the tally of 423 runs he accumulated in the space of eleven matches last summer. He is also now within a whisker of emulating Darren Lehmann's effort - recorded at an equivalent stage last summer - of reaching three figures five times in successive first-class matches.

"This is probably the best I've ever put together," said Hodge of his incredible run.

"I guess the only equivalent would be my first year. Obviously that was a good year. But now I know my game a little bit more, know my limitations and know my strengths, and I've toned my game to suit that."

"I thought my defence was lacking a little bit; for years, I've always had a number of good shots but I thought I lacked the ability to defend and stay out for there for long periods of time," he explained of the contrast between the start to this year and seasons past.

As impressive today as his sheer strokeplay alone - which was attractive enough in itself - was his ability to steady a dawdling Victorian ship through a slow early passage and then to effortlessly accelerate the pace of the innings. Although the sluggish pace of the outfield made the score appear more inadequate than it might otherwise have been, the Bushrangers had managed to accumulate a mere fifty-two runs during the pre-lunch session in a risk-averse performance that threatened to undermine skipper Paul Reiffel's success at the toss. Utilising strokeplay which points to a new level of confidence and self-belief, Hodge encountered few difficulties in sparking the turnaround.

It needs to be said that the meaty Arnberger lost little by comparison, though. After a patient start around the dismissals of Shawn Craig (8) and Matthew Mott (7), he followed Hodge's lead to produce some sparkling strokeplay throughout the afternoon. Forceful driving through the arc between mid off and mid on punctuated his fourth first-class century, but there were very few parts of the ground to which he failed to play shots. His departure fifteen minutes before stumps - as he unleashed a loose cover drive at Adam Dale (2/30) - wasn't quite the finish that his hand demanded.

For the Queenslanders, it was a most unsatisfying day. Deprived of the services of Andy Bichel, Michael Kasprowicz, Scott Muller and Ashley Noffke to a mixture of international commitments and injury problems, they struggled to confer to their attack a penetrative edge. Typically, Dale bowled accurately and was a model of containment. On their first-class debuts, medium pacer Carseldine and off spinner Scott O'Leary (1/39) weren't the worst either. But there was little to encourage them in the straw-coloured pitch nor many obvious ways past the bats of Arnberger and Hodge. And where the thunderstorm-laden activity of late yesterday and early this morning might normally have been expected to encourage significant swing and seam movement, there was only spasmodic evidence of it to be found today.