Two weeks after Peter Nevill twice faltered with the bat at Bellerive Oval representing Australia, the dumped Test wicketkeeper has returned to the Hobart ground to produce a solid Sheffield Shield knock.
The NSW No.5 on Saturday reached stumps at 73 not out, providing NSW with one of three half-centuries that helped the side finish day one versus Tasmania at a commanding 3-288.
Joining skipper Moises Henriques (94 not out) in the middle, it was a bittersweet return to the southern capital for Nevill.
"He came back in some trying conditions and he's batted beautifully all day," Henriques said of his teammate with whom he forged an unbeaten 159-run partnership.
"I'm sure he'd be disappointed he's not playing for Australia but he knows there's only one way to get back in there and that's by scoring runs."
Nevill was part of Australia's XI and managed to scratch together scores of just three and six across two innings at Bellerive against South Africa.
"Pete's had a pretty hard run of luck over the last six months to a year," Henriques continued.
"He's come in under pressure trying to dig the team out and he's had a couple of bad decisions and dismissals, come in to bat at difficult times for us so far this year so today was a great opportunity to build an innings."
Joining Nevill and Henriques with a half century on Saturday and also giving national selectors a nudge, was Kurtis Patterson (71).
He came out firing to replace opener Ed Cowan (eight).
His half-century is the fourth time he has passed 50 in as many Shield matches, including 111 against Queensland to open the season.
Handed a lifeline just after lunch when Ben Dunk, fielding at gully, dropped the gung-ho batsman, Patterson didn't seem to recover from the shock and was out, bowled by Sam Rainbird (1-62) a short time later.
With opener Daniel Hughes (30) already back in the sheds, Henriques and Nevill saw out the day for the Blues.
After Tasmania won the toss and chose to bowl, James Faulkner (2-35) opened the attack and went on to do most of the damage for the Tigers.
Named in Australia's one-day squad to play New Zealand in December, Cricket Australia told Faulkner to take it easy on his troublesome knee during the domestic competition, but the allrounder said he pulled up well at the end of his 15 overs on day one.
"There's no actual figure on how many overs I'm going to bowl, it's purely how I'm feeling," he said.
