New South Wales opener Daniel Hughes has opened the domestic cricket season in spectacular fashion to leave Victoria facing a challenging victory target in the one-day match at Junction Oval.
Hughes cracked 117 off 128 balls, including two sixes, to help NSW to 7-277 after the Blues were given first use of the wicket.
There were solid contributions at the top of the order from fellow opener Kurtis Patterson (30), along with Moises Henriques (35) and Matthew Gilkes (40).
But Hughes stole the show to extend his NSW record for most one-day centuries to eight.
Hughes looked capable of surpassing his career-best score of 152, only to be caught superbly by part-time wicketkeeper Peter Handscomb off the bowling of allrounder Jonathan Merlo in the 43rd over.
Scott Boland had the honour of delivering the first ball of the domestic summer, but there was little joy for the Vic attack as the visitors surged to 2-227, before late wickets fell in the pursuit of quick runs.
Boland, last summer's breakthrough Test star, knocked over Jack Edwards with his penultimate delivery to return 1-41.
Left-arm spinner Todd Murphy was the pick of the bowlers with a frugal 10-over return of 2-29, while Merlo's two wickets came at a cost of 64 runs from eight overs.
