His quick bowlers delivered, 20-year-old Will Pucovski put his name up in lights and Peter Handscomb would have been a perfectly content Victorian captain had over rates not been an issue in their Sheffield Shield opening win.
On the back of the win in the one-day domestic cup, Victoria couldn't have started the Sheffield Shield season any better with a dominant win over Western Australia by an innings and 45 runs in Perth on Friday night.
They bowled WA out twice for 208 and 251 with Chris Tremain (4-37, 5-100) and Scott Boland (3-72, 4-57) the standouts while 20-year-old sensation Will Pucovski struck a brilliant 243 as part of Victoria's 508 in their only innings at the WACA Ground.
The match went so well for the Victorians that the only thing for captain Handscomb to be worried about was their slow over rate.
They fell as much as seven overs behind during WA's second innings meaning Handscomb had to bowl part-time offspinner Matt Short for seven overs and Andrew Fekete off a shortened run to get things close to parity.
"We just need to bowl our overs faster, that's it. We've timed our overs and they are too slow for what the rules are so we just have to get through them faster, it's simple," Handscomb said.
"To blow out to seven or eight overs at one point was too much. It's something we've always been bad at, but we need to be better."
While they could have bowled their overs a little quicker as could have debutant Jackson Coleman, Handscomb couldn't fault the combined effort of Tremain and Boland to take 16 of WA's 20 wickets.
"Tremain and Boland are our two spearheads and we want them leading the attack, and they know that," he said.
"To come out in the first red ball game of the year and bowl like that is awesome."
The real star of the match was Pucovski who notched the second Shield century of his young career. He did so in remarkable style making 243 from 311 deliveries with 30 boundaries.
"He's got a real old head on young shoulders. He's smart, reads the game well and thinks about it a lot, and then goes out there and executes pretty well," Handscomb said.
"It was a very special knock. I would be happy sitting up here watching that all day, every day. His decision-making for the entire innings was fantastic and he barely put a foot wrong. It was some world-class batting."
