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.
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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