Victoria’s Test top order contenders have failed to fire as Nathan Lyon returned to red ball cricket for the first time since his Ashes injury at the MCG on Thursday.
Marcus Harris’ difficult start to the Sheffield Shield season continued with a golden duck while Will Pucovski squandered a hard-fought 33 as New South Wales took advantage of seam-friendly conditions to reduce Victoria to 8-182 at stumps on day 1.
Returning to the longer format following the torn calf muscle that derailed his Ashes campaign, Lyon was only used for six overs in the opening session but bowled with strong control to return figures of 0-31 off 16.
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He had returned from his first ever significant injury lay-off in the Blues’ Marsh Cup win over South Australia last week, claiming 0-51 from nine overs.
The green MCG pitch convinced NSW to drop its reigning Shield player of the season Chris Green to make way for Lyon.
The 30-year-old off-spinner, who made a belated first-class debut last year, was left out despite notching 363 runs at 45.37 and 22 wickets at 27.63 in his eight games amid the Blues’ horror run in first-class cricket.
NSW captain Moises Henriques’ plan for Harris came to fruition immediately when the left-hander spooned his first ball to bat pad off the bowling of Chris Tremain.
Returning to the Victorian side at No. 3, Pucovski was dropped by keeper Matthew Gilkes on 10 but batted for more than two hours before he was caught behind off Jackson Bird for 33 off 106 balls.
Peter Handscomb (43) and captain Will Sutherland (7) both holed out cheaply with top-edged pull shots to square leg before Matt Short (26) was run out following a mix-up with Sam Harper as the Vics lost 4-46 in a turbulent 17-over period.
Another Test opener candidate, Matt Renshaw, fell cheaply to Beau Webster for 7 as Queensland overcame a slow start at Bellerive Oval to reach 3-293 thanks to a 187-run partnership between Joe Burns and Jack Clayton.
Burns broke a Shield century drought extending back to February 2021 to bring up his 20th first-class hundred, before Michael Neser took advantage of a promotion to No.5 with an unbeaten 51 as the Bulls gained the upper hand over Tasmania.
Wes Agar starred with the ball for South Australia, claiming six wickets including the crucial dismissals of in-form openers Cameron Bancroft and Sam Whiteman as Western Australia was bowled out for 241 at the Adelaide Oval.
Bancroft posted 57 to continue his impressive early season campaign, while Hilton Cartwright offered some middle order resistance with 56 before he holed out to long-on off Ben Manenti’s bowling.
The Redbacks reached 0-27 at stumps after Kelvin Smith (18 off 16 balls) took an aggressive approach to opening duo Joel Paris and Aaron Hardie.
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