Sport

Sheffield Shield: Victoria on the back foot against New South Wales

A fighting half-century from Travis Dean and some lusty hitting from allrounder Evan Gulbis helped Sheffield Shield leaders Victoria reach a respectable 258 against NSW in challenging conditions at the MCG.

With the Shield resuming after a two-month mid-season break, Victoria struggled early on under cloudy skies slumping to 3-80 after NSW won the toss and sent their rivals into bat.

But opener Dean remained immovable for four over hours in carving out a patient 67 off 182 balls.

Gulbis, on his debut for the Bushrangers after several seasons representing Tasmania, took a different approach and crashed 42 off 48 balls.

Eighteen-year-old Victorian batsman Will Pucovski struck a neat 28 on debut.

Medium-pacer Harry Conway was the pick of the NSW attack returning figures of 3-25 from 15 tidy overs, including the key wickets of Rob Quiney (32), Cameron White (3) and top-scorer Dean.

NSW, who have just two wins from five outings at the midway mark of the competition, were 0-0 at the close after being forced to face a single over.

AAP