Victoria 1 for 27 (George 1-6) trail Queensland 190 (Heazlett 45, Boland 4-44) by 163 runs
Scorecard
Scott Boland led Victoria’s fine bowling effort with figures of 4 for 44 © Getty Images and Cricket Australia
Victoria steadied in their quest to secure top spot on the Sheffield Shield table and a “home” final by rolling out Queensland cheaply on day one of the match at the Gabba. Having bowled out the Bulls for 190, the Bushrangers lost one wicket in the short passage of play before stumps.
The Bushrangers had subsided to an innings defeat at the hands of bottom-placed Tasmania in Hobart last week, but excelled on a Brisbane surface that offered some assistance to the pacers to keep the Bulls from creeping any closer to their perch at the head of the competition table.
Scott Boland took a well-deserved four-for for the visitors, and had strong support from Jake Reed, Chris Tremain, Marcus Stoinis, Dan Christian and the wrist spinner Fawad Ahmed.
No Bulls batsman did better than Sam Heazlett’s 45, but Matt Renshaw, Charlie Hemphrey and Chris Lynn will all be irritated about squandering starts. Allrounder James Hopes provided some late resistance with a hard-hitting 36 to push the Bulls close to the 200 mark.
Left with an awkward session to negotiate before the close, Victoria lost Travis Dean when he shouldered arms to Peter George and was bowled. Nevertheless, they would surely have been the far happier team at stumps.
Daniel Brettig is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @danbrettig
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo