Queensland skipper James Hopes did the damage on the first day of the Sheffield Shield clash against Victoria with the Bushrangers on the back foot at 8-197 when rain stopped play at the MCG.
Having won the toss and elected to bat, Victoria was in all sorts of trouble at 3-17 as Hopes ripped through the top order with three wickets in the first hour of play.
The Bulls skipper had opener Rob Quiney caught at first slip for four runs in the 10th over of the morning and was on a hat trick when Marcus Stoinis was out, caught at fine leg, for a golden duck off the next ball.
The Bulls’ medium-pacer missed out on his hat trick, but soon rattled the stumps of Dean Russ on 12 after the opener shouldered arms to a ball that nipped back off the pitch.
However, Queensland was unable to capitalise on the impressive start as David Hussey and Peter Handscomb combined to put on a stand of 93 before Handscomb was removed on 43 by a brilliant one-handed effort from Chris Lynn at mid-on.
Victorian skipper Matthew Wade went for 12 shortly after the tea break when he didn’t play a shot at an in-swinger from Hopes that clattered into middle and off-stump, but John Hastings fought a valiant rearguard action.
The all-rounder made a chanceless 50 before another piece of brilliance in the field, this time from Cameron Boyce at gully, removed him to put the Bulls well back on top.
But it was a day of mixed fortunes in the field for the visitors with Hussey and Handscomb both given lives early in their respective innings when regulation chances went to ground.
Hopes barely put a foot wrong, however, and posted figures of 4-35 from 19 overs on the back of his career-best figures of 6-45 against Western Australia last week.
Play was interrupted twice on Tuesday with play set to begin 30 minutes earlier at 10am on Wednesday as a result.
The strong start keeps Queensland’s hopes of reaching the Shield final alive with the Bulls needing an outright win and other results to go their way in the remaining matches to snatch a berth in the decider.
