Voges' record knock leaves Bulls frustrated

Adam Voges produced the highest score by a WA captain yesterday, but his belated declaration angered Queensland and cost the Warriors sufficient time to pinch victory.

Facing the near-impossible challenge of scoring 301 from 41 overs to get their first outright win of the Sheffield Shield season, the Bulls opted for batting practice on a WACA Ground pitch that held together significantly better than anticipated.

Man of the match Luke Pomersbach relished the low-key last session to add 40 to his first- innings century in Queensland's reply of 2-81.

Young spinner Ashton Agar snared both wickets.

"It was a ridiculous run chase," Queensland coach Stuart Law said. "They had no real urgency from early in the morning.

"Seven an over is a back- handed compliment that teams fear us, but it takes us further out of the competition."

But Voges defended his decision to delay his declaration until nearly tea when he was 235 not out and WA had climbed to 5-447.

"We were happy not to lose the game," Voges said. "We were behind in the game for so much of it and we didn't want to hand Queensland anything too easy.

"Seven an over is pretty conservative and we needed more time to take 10 wickets. We needed a lot more time than we had."

Voges said there was no specific target in mind at the start of play when WA led by 35, but his decision was influenced by the excellent batting conditions.

"Pomers scored at a run a ball without really trying to show how easy it was to score," he said.

Yet the day belonged to Voges, whose 11th shield century was his highest first-class score and a reminder to national selector John Inverarity of his qualities against the red ball.

His 457-minute innings was the sixth double century scored by a WA captain and surpassed Ken Meuleman's 234 not out against South Australia at the WACA in 1956-57 as the highest.

Voges' knock was only eight runs short of WA's highest score against Queensland, Colin Milburn's blazing 243 at the Gabba in 1968-69.

WA were 5-287 at lunch - a lead of 140 - with the declaration expected within an hour.

But Voges batted on until tea during which time he and the dogged Sam Whiteman (74 not out) added 162 for the sixth wicket against an honest Queensland attack unable to extract any life from the surface.

The Warriors dropped one place to fourth on the shield ladder, but are only eight points short of second-placed South Australia.

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They had no real urgency from early in the morning."Stuart Law