Victorian pair Matthew Wade and James Pattinson have put their hands up for national call-ups after they brought Western Australia's Ryobi One-Day Cup campaign to a screeching halt at the MCG on Wednesday.
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Victorian pair Matthew Wade and James Pattinson have put their hands up for national call-ups after they brought Western Australia's Ryobi One-Day Cup campaign to a screeching halt at the MCG on Wednesday.
Wade smashed a brilliant career-high 120 off 130 deliveries to guide the Bushrangers to 5-317 in the first innings while Pattinson (3-31off 10.2 overs) starred with the ball in the second innings to help restrict the Warriors to 8-258 and hand the Bushrangers a 59-run win - their first for the summer.
The result anchored WA (0-4) to the bottom of the table with no hope of reaching February's final and kept Victoria's (1-3) faint hopes of defending their one-day title alive.
If chasing a 300-plus target wasn't hard enough, the Warriors also had to contend with injuries to star batsmen Marcus North (back spasms) and Adam Voges (groin) who hurt themselves during Victoria's innings.
North didn't taking his place in the batting line-up while Voges came in out of position at No.10 after it was originally thought he wouldn't face Victoria's bowlers either.
But because the visitors were on 253 when their eighth wicket fell and the Bushrangers needed to restrict them to 254 or less to earn a bonus point, Voges made his way out to the crease to ensure the hosts only earned four points.
When Voges retired hurt in the 46th over, the match ended in unusual circumstances as North was the only remaining bat and couldn't join the run chase.
However, the day belonged to Wade as the wicketkeeper-batsman kept up the pressure on out-of-sorts incumbent national gloveman Brad Haddin with another superb batting display.
Wade clobbered the Warriors bowling attack to all parts of the ground to end up with 12 boundaries and two sixes.
Michael Hogan (2-51 off 10) finally dismissed Wade in the 41st over when the Bushranger edged one to wicketkeeper Luke Ronchi to leave Victoria 3-236.
Wade formed one half of a sensational second-wicket partnership that also included star veteran Brad Hodge (78 off 89) which produced 185 runs off 195 deliveries.
The pair combined raw aggression and delicate precision with devastating effect as the WA bowling attack struggled to come up with solutions to the onslaught.
Hodge did some bludgeoning of his own with nine fours and two spectacular sixes off pacemen Jason Behrendorff (0-16 off two) and Ben Edmondson (3-87 off 11).
But a ball after sending Edmondson over the mid-wicket fence, Hodge miscued a pull shot to be easily caught by Voges at short mid-wicket.
Some late lusty hitting from David Hussey (52 off 41), Andrew McDonald (23 off 13), Cameron White (22 off 17) and Rob Quiney (eight off two), who hit a six off the last ball of the innings, helped the Bushrangers smash 62 off the last six overs and comfortably go past 300.
Hogan, Nathan Rimmington (0-75 off 13) and Marcus North (0-42 off eight) were the tidiest Warriors bowlers while leading wicket-taker Edmondson and Voges (0-44 off six) endured some serious punishment.
In response, the Warriors put together a string of decent partnerships but just as each one looked set to take charge of the match, a wicket would be lost.
Wes Robinson (66 off 95), Tom Beaton (54 off 51), Travis Birt (27 off 16), Nathan Rimmington (35 off 27), Hogan (27 off 19) and Marcus Harris (22 off 30) all got starts but none could go on with it.
Despite a spirited effort from the Warriors tail, they lost their last five wickets for 93 runs.
Pattinson claimed the crucial scalps off Beaton and Rimmington who threatened to give the massive total a nudge as well as Ronchi (two).
Glenn Maxwell (2-38 off six) and Jon Holland (2-44 off seven) joined Pattinson as Victoria's other wicket-takers while Hussey (0-29 off six) was economical.
