Bulls bowlers strike on gloomy, rain-hit opening day

Queensland had the best of a rain-interrupted opening day of their Marsh Sheffield Shield match against Victoria at Allan Border Field in Brisbane, reducing the visitors to 4-81 from the 21.4 overs of play that was possible.

As he had done at the Gabba last week against WA, Jack Wildermuth impressed with the new ball after Usman Khawaja won the toss and opted to bowl under grey skies, striking twice in three balls to wrest the momentum back in the Bulls' favour following Nic Maddinson's explosive early cameo.

After a near two-hour wait to bat owing to constant drizzle, Maddinson (32 off 36 balls) picked up a length ball on the stumps from Michael Neser in the opening over and lifted it spectacularly over backward square for six, the first scoring shot of the match.

It was a harbinger of what was to come in the game's initial phase, with Maddinson playing a series of slashing cuts and drives to race to 23 before his opening partner Marcus Harris (19no at stumps) had even scored.

A short time later, having just deposited Wildermuth over cow corner and onto the adjacent Ray Lindwall Oval, the dashing leftie was out edging to Usman Khawaja, who took a sharp chance at third slip.

Two balls later, Wildermuth pinned Peter Handscomb on the back pad and the in-form Victorian skipper was on his way without scoring.

The wicket exposed the visitors' relatively inexperienced middle order and, after an early lunch was called due to more rain, Queensland quicks Neser and Brendan Doggett each struck, removing Matt Short (17) and Jake Fraser-McGurk (6) to have the visiting side wobbling at 4-75.

Returning from a hamstring injury for his first Shield match since November, Neser (1-31) came into the XI at the expense of Xavier Bartlett and copped some early stick from Maddinson, who appeared a man in a hurry.

But the 31-year-old typically stuck to a good line and length and was rewarded with the wicket of Short, who was well caught in the cordon by Joe Burns after slashing hard at a wider delivery outside off stump.

Soon after, Burns exceeded his first effort to snaffle an outstanding catch to dismiss Fraser-McGurk, the highly-rated youngster pushing at a Doggett delivery and succeeding only in finding the edge of his bat.

As Harris and new man Seb Gotch fought hard to keep their wickets intact in challenging conditions, the rain returned, bringing an early end to the day, with more of the same forecast for the week ahead.