Bulls Roar To Opening Win

Marnus Labuschagne revelled, Jack Wildermuth maintained, and Hugh Weibgen debuted for Queensland, as a flurry of eye-catching efforts set the home side charging to victory in spite of a stirring Glen Maxwell led fightback.

With Bulls legend Stuart Law, now coach of Nepal, an interested spectator in the crowd, the current Queensland captain powered to his second career limited overs century for the Bulls.

His chanceless ton was then followed by another emphatic batting effort from allrounder Wildermuth (??) while first-gamer Weibgen looked right at home as the produced valuable runs at the end of the innings.

Labuschagne was watchful early, taking nine balls to get off the mark as Victoria's quicks found some early life in the Allan Border Field surface to remove Jimmy Peirson cheaply.

Jack Clayton and Labschagne then hunkered down to ride out the early impetus from the Vics, batting with patience and not strikerate as they trusted their deep batting depth.

When Clayton fell, Labuschagne began to increase his batting tempo and the further he went in his innings, the more he looked in complete control.

Sharing time with Matt Renshaw and Lachlan Hearne, he lifted the team scoring rate as well as his own, bringing up a chanceless century from 92 balls – just his second in one-day cricket for the Bulls.

He finished narrowly short of his career best one-day score of 135 when he holed out to long on off debutant left-arm spinner Callum Stow in the 45th over for 130, but he'd laid the platform for Wildermuth to explode at the death and take Queensland over the 300-run mark.

Wildermuth finished unbeaten on 54 from 30 balls with four sixes as the hosts posted 5-310 from their 50 overs.

Labuschagne's century continues a hot run of form for the 31-year-old, who scored a pair of 67s (one retired) in the past 10 days in Queensland's trial matches against Tasmania. He also blazed a 57-ball hundred for club side Redlands in the KFC T20 Max competition just a matter of weeks ago.

Once Queensland had made the best of their situation, the experience and new ball prowess of Michael Neser came to the fore.

With the Bulls one-day playing strip this season carrying 'peach' accents to complement their usual maroon colouring, it was Neser who delivered a pair of peaches in his first over to have the visiitors reeling at 2-5.

It was a masterful exhibition of swing and seam bowling, with another wicket reducing Victoria to 3-16.

Pete Hanscomb (55) and Maxwell, whose knock of 107 featured seven mighty sixes, fought back with gusto, but Victoria were eventually all out for 255 in the 47th over, losing their last three wickets for 11 runs to hand the Bulls a 55-run victory.

It meant a rare victory for a team batting first at Allan Border Field in the One Day Cup, with the majority of victories coming from chasing teams in the limited overs arena.

Weibgen claimed a wicket while Labuschagne produced a stunning slips catch of an impressive Mitch Swepson, while Wildermuth also nabbed three wickets.

The Bulls will be back in action on Sunday against WA in a day/night clash at Allan Border Field while Victoria back up on Friday against Tasmania in a neutral match at Allan Border Field.