Adam Voges strikes century to give WA the upper hand against NSW in Sheffield Shield clash

ADAM Voges and Jason Behrendorff have put Western Australia in the box seat to beat New South Wales in the Sheffield Shield match at the WACA Ground.
The game was evenly poised coming into the third day, but a brilliant 190-run stand between Voges and wicketkeeper-batsman Sam Whiteman saw the Warriors comfortably collect first innings points on Saturday to finish all out on 462 with a 118-run lead.
Whiteman ended up missing his maiden first-class century when he fell for 88.
But captain Voges went on to make 155 and at stumps on day three, NSW were in desperate trouble in their second innings at 4-102.
The Blues still require 15 more runs just to make WA bat again with first innings centurion Ryan Carters not out on 32.
Behrendorff was again the star with the ball for the Warriors, claiming 3-27 from 11 overs including the scalps of Nic Maddinson (15), Scott Henry (10) and Ben Rohrer (35).
His three wickets backed up what he did in the first innings where he claimed a career-best 5-65 for WA.
Earlier, both Voges and Whiteman received some luck given not out from strong appeals, but took full advantage and by lunch, had advanced the score to 5-366.
The pair continued on after the break and Whiteman looked on target for his maiden century, but ended up falling just short when bowled for 88 by spinner Manjot Singh.
Voges continued on, ending up with 155 and receiving good support from Behrendorff (29) and Ryan Duffield (16).
Sean Abbott was the pick of NSW’s bowlers with 4-71 while Singh took 2-163 from 35 overs.
Not only did Behrendorff take three second-innings wickets to give him match figures of 8-92, his 29 with the bat was his highest first-class score.
He paid tribute to Voges and Whiteman’s efforts with the bat for how strongly WA were placed.
“All the credit really has to go to Vogey and Sammy Whiteman today for the way they batted.
“The game was in an interesting position coming into the day, but they batted us into a dominant position to get a lead and then a few other guys chipped in at the finish to get some handy runs as well,’’ Behrendorff said.
“To now have them four wickets down already, it puts us in a really strong position but we can’t just come back out tomorrow expecting it to happen.
“We have to come out focused and ready to get the job done because we know NSW will fight hard. But we are in a really good position and hopefully we can capitalise.”