Agony continues for Qld - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Agony continues for Qld

By Adam Cooper 13/03/2004 07:31:37 PM Comments (0)

The record books were spared but Queensland's bowlers were not as Victoria continued using its licence to bat with abandon on day two of the Pura Cup cricket final at the MCG.

With the Bushrangers 6-592 at stumps in 186 overs and 723 minutes, the innings has been a statistician's delight but prolonged agony for Queensland, which faces another three days of formalities before Victoria is crowned champion.

Needing only a draw to secure its first first-class title since 1990-91, Victoria will bat on Sunday to become just the third side after Queensland (in 1994-95) and Western Australia (1986-87) to post 600 in a Sheffield Shield/Pura Cup final.

"We'll bat until Queensland get us out," said Victorian captain Darren Berry.

While Friday produced a stack of records to century-maker Matthew Elliott, Saturday was more like a thousand cuts, with the Victorian middle order knuckling down after the Bulls pacemen picked up three wickets before lunch.

The day's star was Jonathan Moss, who made an entertaining 98 and was denied a ton when he failed to get to the pitch of the ball for possibly the first time all day and chipped Nathan Hauritz to short mid-on.

Moss and Cameron White (54) put on 135 to regain Victoria's ascendancy and then all-rounders Ian Harvey (34 not out) and Andrew McDonald (37 not out) rounded off another dominant batting performance.

Berry smiled when asked if it would be hard keeping a lid on celebrations for the next three days.

But he said Victoria was still chasing an outright win, and could get some help from a pitch that has been dead for two days but starting to show signs of life.

"Speaking to McDonald and Harvey, they said a few kept a little bit low today towards the end of play today, which is obviously very encouraging for us with almost 600 runs on the board," Berry said.

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