McCullum ton can't save New Zealanders

CA Chairman's XI 285 (Pomersbach 88, Hussey 73, Oram 3-41) beat New Zealanders 9 for 278 (McCullum 119) by seven runs
Scorecard

Near-misses are becoming something of a feature for New Zealand, who narrowly lost out to South Africa in the recent one-day series. At Lilac Hill on Friday they fell seven runs short of the Australia Chairman's XI - who have a habit out of dishing out tough work-outs to touring sides - despite an electric hundred from their stand-in captain Brendon McCullum.

He was leading his side for the first time, filling in for the rested Daniel Vettori, and brought them to the brink before they pulled up short chasing 286. The tourists also left out Kyle Mills for the encounter, the sole warm-up for the three-match Chappell-Hadlee Series, and the bowling attack suffered some harsh punishment.

Luke Pomersbach in particular pummelled the visitors with 88 from 65 balls. New Zealand are already without the injured Shane Bond and James Franklin for the forthcoming internationals, but Jacob Oram pulled his weight with three wickets while Chris Martin and Jeetan Patel each collected two.

Pomersbach is currently suspended by Western Australia but played well in a 2nd XI match earlier in the week and is due to return in the Pura Cup match against South Australia. Luke Ronchi, meanwhile, once again led the Chairman's XI who had given the Sri Lankans a tester in the warm-up at Adelaide in October.

He made his second successive duck for the representative side, but can be happy again with his team's performance. David Hussey chipped in with 73, while wickets were shared around the bowlers. The key dismissal was that of McCullum, whose 119 (from 126 balls, with nine fours and five sixes) was something of a lone effort, and when he fell to Aaron Heal in the 40th over the lower order could not quite pull off the chase.