Victoria are 1-82 against a South Australian side surprisingly missing their two most recent international cricketers in the Sheffield Shield match in Adelaide.
The Redbacks overlooked allrounder Dan Christian and paceman Kane Richardson for the Shield match which started Thursday.
Victoria won the toss and were 1-82 at lunch, with opener Chris Rogers not out 44 and Michael Hill on 20.
Christian, who played a starring role in Brisbane Heat’s Big Bash Twenty20 title, was not included in SA’s 12-man squad for the Shield fixture.
The allrounder was suspended from SA’s last Shield game in November for disciplinary reasons after repeatedly damaging changing rooms when dismissed.
And Richardson, who made his Australian one-day debut just 11 days ago, was made 12th man for the game against the Bushrangers, who struggled early against some fine swing bowling by SA’s Chadd Sayers.
Sayers achieved a deserved breakthrough when dismissing Rob Quiney for 13, brilliantly caught by wicketkeeper Tim Ludeman, diving low to his left to complete a spectacular one-handed grab in front of first slip.
But Rogers and Hill steadied with an unbroken 63-run stand until the lunch break.