PERTH, Dec 7 AAP - South Africa's Mark Boucher wants to measure up against Adam Gilchrist as a run-scoring wicketkeeper when the Test series against Australia starts next week.

Boucher, like Gilchrist the vice-captain of his country, made a classy 134 as acting skipper to help South Africa to 367 in the cricket tour match against Western Australia at the WACA here today.

WA faced one over before stumps and was 0-2.

It was Boucher's highest first-class score and signalled a return to form after a lean spell for the 25-year-old.

Boucher has a Test average of 30 with three centuries which doesn't quite stack up against Gilchrist's average of 53 with four tons.

"Adam could play in the Australian side purely as a batter," Boucher said today.

"But he sets the standards for us and we have to try to reach those standards, which is good for wicketkeeper batsmen around the world."

And it appears many have been aiming for those standards with New Zealand wicketkeeper Adam Parore and Indian wicketkeeper Deep Dasgupta both scoring Test centuries in the past week.

One area in which Boucher could match Gilchrist is in his scoring rate. He blasted his century today off 106 balls and at one stage had 130 off 133 before getting bogged down against the second new ball.

Filling in for a resting Shaun Pollock as captain for this match, Boucher backed up his decision to bat first by making his sixth first-class century.

He hardly played a false shot but did have a life on 67 when Brad Hogg couldn't reach a catch from the bowling of Matthew Nicholson.

He batted three hours and hit 21 boundaries before he was caught at first slip by Simon Katich off the bowling of Stuart Karppinen.

On a mixed day for South Africa, Boucher's ton and the spirited performance from tour rookie Jacques Rudolph were the highlights.

Rudolph hit an enterprising 59 in difficult conditions.

The 20-year-old lefthander had some anxious moments on a lively pitch but stayed positive and pulled out a wide variety of attacking strokes.

With his main rival Boeta Dippenaar left out of the team for this match, Rudolph is now a strong contender to make his Test debut against Australia at the Adelaide Oval next week.

Boucher hinted that would be the case.

"Jacques is a very young, confident player who's made a lot of runs back home. It would be very good to see him carry his confidence and form into the Test series."

Rudolph, who is playing his 24th first-class match, eventually fell when he edged a catch to wicketkeeper Ryan Campbell off the bowling of Nicholson.

Apart from Neil McKenzie, who was unlucky to be bowled by Gavin Swan for 35 when the ball hit a crack in the pitch and changed line dramatically, South Africa's other top order batsmen were less than impressive on a testing deck. But Boucher said the rationale in batting first despite the green nature of the pitch was to make sure all the leading batsmen had two chances to find some form before the first Test.

For WA, Nicholson took 5-68 using all the assistance on offer from the seaming deck to torment the batsmen.

Pollock, who made a century in this game on the last South African tour here, opted to sit out this game to allow the other pacemen - Allan Donald, Makhaya Ntini and Steve Elworthy - put forward their Test claims.

© 2001 AAP