After today slamming a fourth century in the space of five innings against this opponent (and an eleventh against it overall), Tasmanian captain Jamie Cox was at a loss to explain what accounts for his great personal form against New South Wales. But it was virtually the only time that he was confounded on a day when he hammered out a magnificent unbeaten 156 to lead his team to 4/321 and a strong position as the teams' Pura Cup match opened here at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

"They've been pretty good to me over the years but I couldn't tell you (why); I've got no idea," he said of his penchant for flaying a succession of New South Wales attacks, particularly over recent years.

Following on from a pair of centuries in the home game earlier in the season, the stylish right hander conceived another innings high on concentration and classical strokeplay today. Extraordinarily, the result was that those last five innings against the Blues have now yielded the small matter of 660 runs at the average of a mammoth 330.

"This place was tough for me early. But I've had some good times here the last three or four years as well," he said of his string of recent successes in Sydney.

Maybe the writing was on the wall when the Tasmanian opener compiled a man-of-the-match winning 58 on a treacherous pitch against Victoria in Launceston last Saturday. Because, upon being offered the chance to bat on a far more benign pitch after winning the toss today, he was severe in his punishment of anything loose from the Blues' attack.

On a day when overcast skies, a small crowd, and the spectre of construction work in the Bradman and Noble Stands might otherwise have detracted from the spectacle, Cox lit up the vista with typically strong play through the off side. Indeed, it was vintage Cox in that respect. He is in the midst of another superb season but, strangely, hasn't made all that many runs away from home. It was quite some way to redress the balance.

It was perhaps just as well for the home team that Cox's fellow batsmen didn't capitalise as well as they might have done upon their skipper's lead. Recalled to the team after a one-match omission, Dene Hills (25) returned to partner his old friend at the top of the order and helped add fifty-five in Tasmania's best opening partnership of the summer. But a rash cut at the medium pace of Shane Lee (1/46) brought about his downfall from the very first ball after the day's opening drinks break. Like two of the other three wickets that fell, that setback was more a result of self-inflicted damage than from wounding inspired by the opposition.

Michael DiVenuto (22) had been building a correct and patient innings. But he was slow to set off around a sprawled bowler and was easily run out in the search for a quick Cox single to mid on from Stuart MacGill (1/88). Later, Daniel Marsh (29) picked out Mark Higgs at backward point as he mistimed a shot off the back foot, thereby handing off spinner Anthony Clark (1/41) his maiden first-class wicket. Only youngster Shane Watson (28) could have had cause to feel that he was genuinely beaten, the combination of a sharp, reflex catch from Brett van Deinsen at short leg complementing the clever piece of flight that MacGill had endowed to a leg side leg break.

In their defence, the home team's bowlers found little in the pitch to inspire them. There was evidence of early seam for Don Nash (0/52) and Nathan Bracken (0/62) but pace in the wicket was not abundant. Albeit that they adhered to the task admirably, the Blues also suffered badly from a predilection to bowl too short late in the day. Things yielded far more significantly to spin and MacGill and Higgs (0/29) certainly emerged as their team's best bowlers. Tellingly perhaps, two of the three near-chances against Cox came against the slow men.

At 71, the thirty year old's innings came closest to its end when he tried to whip a dipping MacGill full toss through square leg before the ball ballooned into the hands of van Deinsen at silly point. The Blues were confident that a thin edge had been attained on the way through but Umpire Bob Parry was nowhere near as convinced. Another anxious moment had come earlier (with his total at 35 to be precise) when he survived a loud lbw appeal against the bowling of New South Wales captain Lee. And, at 114, an edge flew wide of Lee at slip as he drove at the off spin of Clark.

Otherwise, though, it was day that the Blues would probably prefer to forget. As Pura Cup competition resumed following a five week hiatus, it was very much the day of a man on the opposing side instead.

© 2001 CricInfo Ltd