Victoria 128 for 6 (Harper 43, Sutherland 36* Webster 3-20) beat Tasmania 126 (Elliott 7-12) by four wickets
Victoria quick Sam Elliott claimed the second-best figures in the history of Australian One-Day domestic cricket and hit the winning runs in a critical half-century stand with skipper Will Sutherland to almost singlehandedly guide Victoria to a four-wicket win against Tasmania in Melbourne.
On a very green pitch at the Junction Oval, under overcast skies, Elliott ran through Tasmania's line-up to take 7 for 12 in just his 11th List A game. Former South Australia speedster Shaun Tait is the only man with better figures in the competition's history with 8 for 43.
"I don't know how to describe it," Elliott said. "It was just one of those days when everything sort of clicked, it felt very good.
"[They are my] best figures ever [at any level]. It was a pretty nice day to do it - first One-Day Cup game of the year."
Elliott then starred with the bat alongside Sutherland to save Victoria from disaster after they had slumped to 72 for 6 in response. The pair added an unbeaten 56 for the seventh wicket to guide their side home with 23.1 overs spare. The right-handed Elliott unfurled a couple of cracking pull shots in his 19 not out that looked like the mirror image of those his left-handed father Matthew Elliott played during his 21 Tests for Australia.
"I think [Dad] might have me covered on those ones," Elliott said. "I went to Darwin [in the winter] to work on my batting.
"It was really nice to get a little partnership in the end with Chief [Sutherland]. It was nice to come out with a bit of pressure and do that."
Sutherland produced a classy and composed knock to finish 36 not out. Sam Harper had earlier made a vital 43 opening the batting, the highest score of the match, after claiming five catches behind the stumps.
Tasmania were under pressure right from the start of the day even before Elliott entered the attack. Having been sent into bat in perfect bowling conditions, they lost Mitch Owen and Caleb Jewell inside the first eight overs to leave the visitors 31 for 2. Elliott was then brought on and bowled eight overs unchanged as he made a mess of Tasmania's middle order with his extra bounce and late seam movement. He claimed Jordan Silk with his first ball and then had Jake Weatherald caught behind in the same over after the left-hander had raced to 31 from 31 with six boundaries. Four of Elliott's seven victims were caught behind while three others holed out in the ring trying to hit him off his consistent lengths.
At one stage he had figures of 7 for 8 with two maidens as Tasmania slumped to 92 for 9 when Brad Hope fell. He conceded five singles in his final two overs before Sutherland gave him a breather.
Elliott revealed he had made an adjustment to his release in the warm-up.
"I actually changed something at the start of the game with my wrist," Elliott said. "It was a bit inconsistent but it felt like the good balls were really good. I think the most exciting thing is I can probably go back to training and work on a few things consistency wise. It's good it paid off in the moment."
He also revealed he had worked on increasing his run-up speed during the pre-season with Victoria bowling coach Adam Griffith, and had got a lot stronger in the gym in order to sustain it in games.
"In Darwin for our pre-season thing I wasn't quite bowling the way I wanted to," Elliott said. "And then we came back, had a look at some numbers, and we just decided that that was going to be a real focus point leading into our pre-season games in Sydney. And then coming into now."
Tasmania's final pair, Matthew Kuhnemann and Gabe Bell, put on 34 for the tenth wicket to at least ensure Victoria were chasing more than 120.
There was a stage where it looked like 126 might be defendable as Beau Webster and Tasmania's Tom Rogers followed Elliott's blueprint and tore through Victoria's top-order.
Victoria opened with new recruit Josh Brown instead of Thomas Rogers who had scored 196 when opening in his last One-Day Cup match for Victoria against New South Wales last summer. Rogers instead batted at No. 5 but failed to get going.
Harper's ability to pounce on anything loose ensured the scoreboard kept moving, but when he fell the home side were deep in the mire before Sutherland and Elliott pulled them out.
