Nic Maddinson injury blow for Victoria as James Pattinson impresses again

Victoria suffered a major blow ahead of the Sheffield Shield final with in-form batsman Nic Maddinson suffering a broken thumb fielding on the opening day against South Australia in Adelaide.

Maddinson, who has scored three centuries in the competition this season, fractured his thumb just before tea in the field and did not return after the break. He flew home to Melbourne immediately after play and will see a specialist on Thursday to assess the injury. The Sheffield Shield final starts next Wednesday at the Junction Oval.

Victoria ended the opening day in a promising position after pacemanJames Pattinson reaffirmed his Ashes credentials with three wickets to help bowl out South Australia.

Redbacks skipper Travis Head made a fighting 67 and spinner Tom Andrews a valuable 59 to push the home side to a competitive first innings total of 260 before Nick Winter took the prize wicket of Marcus Harris late in the day to leave Victoria 1 for 28 at stumps and without the services of Maddinson.

After a blistering five-wicket haul in the win over New South Wales last week, Pattinson ripped the heart out of the Redbacks top order as they slipped to 4 for 81 after winning the toss and electing to bat.

He had Conor McInerney, Kelvin Smith and Jake Lehmann all caught behind the wicket with balls that zipped away from the left-handers late at high velocity.

The Redbacks were sitting comfortably at 1 for 80 before Jake Weatherald inexplicably holed out to a slog sweep off Jon Holland for 37. Pattinson then took two wickets in three balls in the next over as the home side lost 3 for 1.

Head held firm with yet another half-century as he lost team-mates around him. Peter Siddle was rewarded for a typically miserly spell picking up the wickets of Brad Davis and Harry Nielsen.

Head and Andrews added 62 to take the total past 200 before Head was brilliantly caught by Chris Tremain in the gully, clinging to a sharply struck cut shot off Andrew Fekete.

Andrews reached 50 for the second time in his short career and added 51 for the eighth wicket with Winter. Andrews made his highest first-class score of 59 before Tremain cleaned up the tail taking the last three wickets for just seven runs.

Victoria looked set to reach stumps unscathed cruising to 28 without loss, but in the last over of the day Winter produced the perfect outswinger to catch the edge of Harris' broad blade.