Timing is vital in cricket, but never moreso than in the new Sheffield Shield season.

A revamped points structure will be trialled in Australia’s domestic four-day competition in a bid to reward attacking cricket.

The moves comes as the Shield became known as a war of attrition rather than attacking duels.

In the past two seasons, no state banked more than four outright wins in their 10 Shield games.

The new points system, to be tested in the next two Shield seasons, hopes to rectify that fact.

It retains six points for an outright win.

But gone is any battle for first innings points: nothing will be awarded for an innings lead, though a draw will reap one point where in the past it returned none.

Cricket Australia has also introduced bonus batting and bowling points for the initial 100 overs.

A batting side will receive 0.01 points for every run they score above 200 in the initial 100 overs – for example, making 350 runs in the 100 overs will bank 1.5 bonus points.

And bowling sides will get 0.5 points for taking five wickets in the initial 100 overs; one point for taking seven wickets; 1.5 points for nine wickets – with a maximum of 1.5 points available.

“We want our batsmen scoring plenty of runs and bowlers taking wickets with the game played in an entertaining and attacking style, but pushed to the limit,” CA’s executive general manager of team performance Pat Howard said when announcing the changes.

“Some may then ask why then we’re rewarding a drawn match now and that is simply because we want teams being rewarded for showing some real fight when it’s needed on the last day, just like Test cricket.

“This is about the style of play in the first innings. Both teams can get points, not just one team in the first innings.”

The system, created after a review of points systems worldwide in domestic cricket, won instant support from Australian coach Darren Lehmann who said it would create more results in Shield cricket – last summer, three of the six states played five draws each; the other three teams featured in three draws each.

THE NEW POINTS SYSTEM

Outright win: six points

Draw: one point

First innings lead: no points

Batting bonus: 0.01 points for every run scored above 200 in the initial 100 overs.

Bowling bonus: 0.5 points for taking five wickets in initial 100 overs; one point for seven wickets; 1.5 points for nine wickets (maximum bonus points is 1.5)