MELBOURNE - A spectacular maiden century from Marcus Stoinis helped put Victoria in a dominant position by stumps on day two of its Sheffield Shield clash against Tasmania at the MCG.
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Stoinis finished the day unbeaten on 164 and his 190-run third-wicket partnership with David Hussey (88) catapulted the bottom-placed Bushrangers to 3-393, earning them first innings points and a lead of 187 runs in reply to Tasmania's first-innings 206.
In an innings characterised by exquisite shot selection, Stoinis cracked 21 boundaries and three sixes - two of which were down-the-ground bombs off Xavier Doherty (2-109) which brought up his 50 and 150-run milestones respectively.
Stoinis and Hussey came together when Rob Quiney's well-crafted knock of 70 came to an end after Luke Butterworth (1-62) had the opener caught behind by Tim Paine in the first session.
The pair terrorised the Tigers for more than three hours as Stoinis assumed the role of aggressor and Hussey took on a more cautious approach with just six fours.
Their devastating union finally came to an end after tea when Hussey was adjudged to be trapped lbw by Doherty, despite TV replays appearing to show the ball missed the veteran Bushrangers' body.
Hussey was forced to head back to the pavilion but not before he registered his 63rd first-class half-century and surpassed 7000 first-class runs for Victoria.
Peter Handscomb (43), with six fours to his credit, is the other not-out batsman and has put on 99 runs for the fourth wicket with Stoinis.
Bottom-placed Victoria has now earned competition points for just the third time in nine attempts this season and is well-placed to win its first game at its home ground in over year.