Hodge, Finch on fire for Victoria crush WA

Hodge cracked 13 fours and four sixes in his unbeaten knock of 134 off 125 balls as the Bushrangers compiled 4-319 from their 45 overs.

Brad Hodge smashed a ruthless century as Victoria crushed Western Australia by 113 runs in the National One-Day Cup clash at the WACA Ground on Friday.

In reply, the Warriors were bowled out for 206 in the 35th over after making just 4-88 in their first 20-over allotment.

Victoria secured the bonus point after posting 1-131 from their first bracket, bettering WA's score by 43 runs.

Bushrangers paceman Shane Harwood (6-46) starred with the ball, while John Hastings (3-49) also proved too hot to handle.

Hodge was ably assisted by opener Aaron Finch (81 off 75 balls), skipper Cameron White (34 off 34) and Andrew McDonald (30 not out off 20).

WA needed 232 runs from their final 25 overs but were never in the hunt as Hastings and Harwood combined to kill the contest.

Luke Ronchi (28) and Luke Pomersbach (16) tried to blast WA out of trouble in the second bracket but were both brought undone by Hastings.

"I think I said before the game they (Victoria) were probably the benchmark and they played very well today and we were pretty poor," Voges said.

"They batted better, they bowled better and we were found pretty shor

Ricky Ponting, Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson to be rested ahead of Ashes

Australian captain Ricky Ponting, Shane Watson and Mitchell Johnson will all be rested from the three one day matches that follow the current Test series against India.

The duo are arguably Australia's three most valuable players, and they will fly home following the conclusion of the second Test against India at Bangalore in order to freshen up ahead of the Ashes series at home. 

This will also give them maximum time to get used to home conditions again after the jolt of Indian climes. 

"The NSP has decided as part of the ongoing management of Ricky's workload he should not take part in this series. The demands of back-to-back Test matches in tough Indian conditions have been taken into consideration,'' said chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch. 

Queensland's James Hopes and New South Wales' Steve Smith will vie for the allrounder's spot, and big-hitting opening batsman David Warner makes a return to the one-day squad. 

The three-ODI series is from October 17-24.

Squad: 

Michael Clarke (capt), 

Cameron White 

Doug Bollinger 

Callum Ferguson 

Nathan Hauritz 

James Hopes 

Mike Hussey 

Shaun Marsh 

Clint McKay

Tim Paine (wk) 

James Pattinson

Steve Smith 

Mitchell Starc 

David Warner

White hones bowling

Victorian captain and Australian limited overs batsman Cameron White has revealed that he has been working on his bowling in an attempt to enhance his chances of further national selection.

The 27-year-old has played only four Tests in his career, on the tour of India two years ago but has been a mainstay of the one-day and Twenty20 teams since midway through 2008 at international level.

Having claimed just five wickets in those four Tests as well as 12 in 68 ODIs and one in his 22 T20 appearances, White has earned selection for the most part as a batsman even though he broke into the first-class ranks with the Bushrangers as a 17-year-old a decade ago.

"And if an opportunity comes in the other formats at the next level that'd be great but it's the same old story, you can't really worry too much about that, I've just got to make sure I'm scoring runs and give myself the best opportunity."

"I'm always working away on my bowling ... and then on the weekend I bowled six or seven overs of leg-spin in the trial game which I bowled quite well," he added.

"We had a practice match the other day which was our first look at the new format and that went pretty well," White said.

"I'm pretty excited about it actually."

"There's a fair bit of new stuff in there, rule changes and simply the format as well."

"I think it all shapes up as a good format and competition so I think we'll look forward to it."