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Hodge hits hundred as game heads for draw

Darren Berry, Victoria's captain, strongly defended his team's strategy as their Pura Cup match against Western Australia headed for a draw

AAP
19-Nov-2003


Brad Hodge: century for Victoria
© Getty Images
Close Western Australia 273 and 0 for 100 lead Victoria 9 for 355 decl by 18 runs
Scorecard
Darren Berry, Victoria's captain, strongly defended his team's strategy as their Pura Cup match against Western Australia headed for a draw. WA were 0 for 100 in their second innings at stumps, an overall lead of 18 runs, after Victoria's post-tea declaration on 9 for 355.
Wayne Clark, Victoria's coach, said the game "just may peter out into a very, very tame draw", but Berry contended that was entirely up to WA. "We lost four or five wickets more than what we wanted to, which made it look poor," Berry said. "Now it looks bad and I can understand that and I'm prepared to cop that, but for me I still think the game is very much alive.
"They've said all along they want to play for six points, we want to play for six and we were going to go with dominating the game because I felt we deserved that right after bowling them out and being 2 for 200. The facts are we stuffed up with the bat, which then swung it around ... 6 for 80 dropped us in the poo."
Berry pointed to WA's first-innings collapse on day one, when they lost 7 wickets for 58 runs to be all out for 273, and his side's slide of 6 wickets for only 83 in 15 overs before tea, as signs that this was a result wicket. He contended WA could bat for 50 or 60 overs tomorrow, with a minimum of 112, and then set Victoria a target.
Victoria resumed on 1 for 78 after yesterday's long rain delay, with an extra hour's play today and tomorrow as compensation for the time lost. Matthew Elliott made 71, the third time in as many innings he has let a century go begging, before Brad Hodge and Jon Moss looked to take control.
But Hodge's dismissal for 100 with the score on 3 for 235 and Moss's fall for 52 18 runs later sparked a middle-order collapse. Berry originally planned for Victoria to reach 500 and then try to bowl out WA tomorrow. Cameron White scored a quickfire 58 not out either side of tea to close the innings. John Taylor took 4 for 70 and was on a hat-trick when he bowled Berry for a golden duck.
Clark said it was entirely up to Victoria to plan their tactics, but made WA's disappointment clear. "We might have expected it a little bit earlier, to open the game up, but obviously that's the way they see it, the best way they can win the game," Clark said. "All I can say is we would have played it a little bit differently. We needed an opportunity to win the game and have time to bowl them out as well. It's easy to talk the talk, you've got to walk the walk."
Justin Langer was 53 not out at the close, including a straight six off White which went out of the ground, and Mike Hussey reached 45 not out. Mike Hussey bowled to David Hussey today, the first time since Greg and Trevor Chappell in the 1983-84 season that a batsman had faced his brother in Australian first-class cricket.