Maddinson's unbeaten 159 sets up Victoria's first-day dominance

Nic Maddinson marked his first Sheffield Shield match for Victoria with a fine unbeaten century to help the home side into a strong position against Western Australia at the MCG.

Maddinson lost his contract with New South Wales at the end of last season and moved to Victoria for fresh opportunities. He played in the JLT Cup but had to bide his time in Premier and Futures League cricket before getting an opportunity at Shield level in the absence of Test players Marcus Harris, Aaron Finch and Peter Handscomb.

Maddinson's ninth first-class century came off 155 balls and he combined in a 112-run third-wicket partnership with Glenn Maxwell.

Maddinson did get a life on 92 that bizarrely ended Maxwell's innings on 57. Matt Kelly dropped a return catch but the ricochet bounced onto the stumps at the non-striker's end where Maxwell was run-out, unluckily short of safe ground.

Cameron White picked up the slack as he and Maddinson put on an unbeaten 134-run stand to take Victoria comfortably through to stumps. White moved easily to 65 not out feasting on a pretty inexperienced attack. Maddinson showed immense maturity to bat through the day, facing 282 balls for 21 fours and two sixes.

Earlier, newly-minted Victorian skipper Travis Dean fell for 16 but did play a part in an important 62-run opening stand after winning the toss. Young batting prodigy Will Pucovski missed out on his return from mental-health issues, chasing a wide one to be dismissed for 1.

The Warriors' attack strangely didn't feature Ashton Agar, who was on Australia's last Test tour as the back-up spinner. He's played just four games of cricket since early September but the team opted to rest him ahead of the Big Bash League, which begins in late December.