Western Australia notched a convincing bonus-point victory over Queensland in their Ryobi Cup clash at the Gabba on Saturday, thanks in large part to a huge partnership between Shaun Marsh and Adam Voges.
The Warriors posted the daunting total of 4-308, which proved too much for the Bulls, who could only manage 198 all out in reply.
Marsh (155 not out) and Voges (112) both recorded their personal best scores in one day domestic cricket, and their partnership of 229 was the highest for the third wicket for Western Australia against Queensland, easily surpassing the 160 scored by Chris Rogers and Justin Langer in 2003.
The Bulls never really got going in their innings, with Greg Moller (39), Peter Forrest (40) and Nathan Reardon (58) the only batsmen to offer up any real resistance.
The Warriors won the toss and elected to bat on a gloriously sunny Brisbane afternoon.
Conditions were in stark contrast to the Bulls' last outing at the Gabba against Tasmania, which was abandoned without a ball being bowled due to persistent rain.
Nathan Coulter-Nile's (3-48) dismissals of Chris Hartley and Joe Burns, both without troubling the scorers, at the top of the Bulls innings meant the chase was never going to be easy.
Though the pitch played true throughout the Queensland chase, scoreboard pressure continued to mount, making the task ever more difficult for the batsmen.
Good spells from Ashton Agar (3-51) and Jason Behrendorff (3-39) to back up Coulter-Nile's earlier efforts ensured no Bulls batsman could match the first innings displays of Marsh and Voges.
Behrendorff snared Pomersbach caught behind, then Forrest at backward square leg as he attempted to hook in the 25th and 27th overs respectively.
The steady fall of wickets from that point on meant the Warriors' total was never under threat.
Earlier, Western Australia had got off to a nervous start in their innings, losing the early wickets of Liam Davis (3), caught behind off the bowling of Matthew Gale (3-50), and Sam Whiteman (1), bowled by Cameron Gannon off a thick inside edge.
They struggled to lift the run rate above three an over as well, with the first boundary not coming until Voges hit a straight drive to the ropes off Gale's bowling in the 10th over.
At the 15 over mark, the Warriors had crept to 2-39, as the Queensland bowlers stuck to a good length.
From there, Voges and Marsh set about building their big, slow-burning partnership, taking few risks as they steadily increased the run rate.
Marsh brought up his half century off 79 balls in the 27th over while Voges took 68 balls to reach the mark in the 30th over.
Both men accelerated in the latter part of their innings, bringing up their respective centuries in the 43rd over, having barely given Queensland a sniff of a chance.
Marsh waited until the 33rd over to hit his first six, which was the very first of the innings, but went on to belt five more, including three from consecutive Alister McDermott deliveries.
Voges was finally caught by Reardon off the bowling of Gale two overs later attempting to scoop the ball over fine leg.
Marsh, with his eye well and truly in, stuck around till the end of the Warriors innings to take the score past 300.
Both the Warriors and the Bulls need to win their final matches but must rely on the Redbacks losing all their remaining games to have any chance of making the final.
First Posted 02 February, 2013 9:42PM AEST
