Hodge stakes his claim
A Brad Hodge century yet again pulled the Bushrangers over the line on Wednesday night in their rain-affected Ryobi One-Day Cup match against Queensland at the MCG.
The Bushrangers won by just four runs after attaining a sizeable 6/297 as the Bulls were unable to reach their revised target of 144 due to rain delays.
In what is fast becoming 'just another day at the office' for Hodge, he belted 108 runs off 98 balls to set the Vics up for the win, marked his third century for the season and 19th one-day century in domestic cricket.
Hodge has more than staked his claim to play limited overs cricket again at the highest level, stretching his lead as the top run-scorer of the one-day domestic competition with 414 runs on the board.
The 35-year-old claims he is still eager to play for Australian despite being overlooked on previous occasions.
"Obviously I'm trying to get into that side," Hodge said after the match.
''I can hide from certain aspects and say I don't want to get involved, but the hard facts are that I do.
"If I keep playing well, we'll just have to wait and see what happens."
Whilst the Victorian public is constantly pleading Hodge's case, Bushrangers Captain Cameron White also believes his form in recent matches will certainly boost the likelihood of national selection this summer.
"He is in great form, you know that he can deal with all sorts of bowling and all conditions, so he is definitely a chance," said White.
"He's scoring enough runs and he's definitely a good enough player.
"I'm not a selector so I'm not sure what the criteria are but generally it seems to be a whole heap of runs and he's got those on the board."
"Hodgy has shown he absolutely understands his game, he's got the motivation, and he wants to score runs despite being 35."
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