McDermott misses ton as Vics strike late on day one

Ben McDermott has fallen agonisingly short of fourth century of the summer after batting Tasmania into a strong position against Victoria as the Tigers push for a berth in this year's Marsh Sheffield Shield final.

Already amid a stellar season that has yielded 1,189 runs at 44 across all formats, including consecutive KFC BBL hundreds, a List A ton and a recall to Australia's T20 team, the 27-year-old was out for 94 on the first ball of the final over of day one when he edged Will Sutherland to Peter Handscomb at slip.

It was the right-hander's second time out in the 90s this season after falling for 93 while playing for the Hobart Hurricanes during the Big Bash.

"It's very disappointing," McDermott said at the end of play.

"But that's the game; I was just trying to move the game forward a little bit towards the end of the day, I felt like we got the bowlers into their second and third spells so I thought maybe it was time to cash in a little bit.

"It's very frustrating, I think that's probably six times in first-class cricket I've got out in the 90s so something to work on there, but it's been a nice summer and hopefully I can finish it off well.

"We'll just try and get as many runs as possible and put ourselves in the best position to not lose, and then hopefully we can take 20 wickets pretty comfortably if we can keep batting and wearing out the wicket."

Jordan Silk (31) also fell four overs before the close of play as a late resurgence from Victoria kept them in the contest as they make their own run towards the Sheffield Shield final.

It was a tough day in the field for the hosts up until that point after Matthew Wade (61) and McDermott batted through the entire middle session to put on 129 for the third wicket.

Silk's dismissal was perhaps the most encouraging sign for the Vics with left-arm tweaker Jon Holland (1-62) able to extract spin and bounce from the Junction Oval surface that hasn't produced a result since the 2018-19 final.

Silk was equally as surprised when the delivery he was attempting to drop into the leg side caught the edge of his bat and ballooned to Victorian skipper Peter Handscomb at first slip with just 19 balls to go in the day.

Earlier, the host's decision to reuse the pitch from their previous Shield match against Queensland paid dividends with recalled off-spinner Todd Murphy (3-58) grabbing the first three wickets to fall.

Desperate for a result after two draws in their past two fixtures, Victoria will be looking for the drier surface to offer some spin as the match progresses with Murphy included for the first time since his debut in April last year to partner veteran Holland.

The Tigers also picked two spinners with Ben Manenti plucked from the Toyota Second XI clash in Footscray in Melbourne's inner-west to make his first-class debut alongside left-arm orthodox Tom Andrews.

Tasmania started patiently after winning the toss and electing to bat first on Tuesday, with Tim Ward and Caleb Jewell progressing to 0-53 from 25 overs.

Murphy, who was into his second spell to the pair of left-handed openers before Holland was introduced into the attack, enticed Jewell (27) out of his crease who failed to connect with a wild slog and was neatly stumped by Sam Harper.

The 21-year-old right-armer had his second an over later when Ward (29) misjudged a ball pitching on off stump, shouldering arms as it skidded on and clipped the off bail, leaving the visitors 2-64 at lunch.

But Victoria's success was short-lived as Wade and McDermott added 89 runs to put the Tigers in a commanding position of 2-155 at tea.

The Australia T20 pair mixed staunch defence with glimpses of power on a day one wicket that offered little sideways movement for the quicks.

Wade was particularly aggressive to the left-arm spin of Holland, launching him over the sightscreen and onto the practice wickets for six before swiping an ambitious slog sweep to the midwicket boundary two balls later.

He brought up his fifty on the penultimate ball before tea when his powerful off-drive beat a diving James Pattinson and raced away to the rope.

McDermott also struck a few powerful blows of his own with back-to-back boundaries off Will Sutherland (1-52) and an errant hook shot that travelled over the keeper's head for six.

Victoria tried to break the partnership, employing a version of leg theory immediately after tea with James Pattinson bowling around the wicket to both the right and left hander, while they also placed a fly slip directly behind the keeper for that top-edged pull shot.

But it wasn't until Murphy returned that another breakthrough came, with Wade edging behind to Harper who completed the catch on the second attempt.

"I think those last two wickets even out the day pretty well, it was a long grind through the middle there but I thought we stuck at it really well, we controlled the scoreboard and then to get a couple of wickets late was really nice," Murphy said after stumps.

"(Coach Chris Rogers and Handscomb said) just go out there, trust myself and compete so it was nice to be able do that today and get a couple of wickets … I was really happy with how it went."

The arrival of the new ball brought back-to-back boundaries by McDermott as he crunched the first two balls from James Pattinson in the 81st over off the back foot through cover for four.

It was the same stroke that would bring him undone 15 overs later however, as he slashed at a ball perhaps too close to cut and edged through to slip.

Tom Rogers (0no) safely negotiated the final five balls of the day and will resume tomorrow with Jake Doran (2no) with Tasmania 5-250.