At the end of a season of ups and downs, it was a blend of the old and the new which won the honours for Tasmania on the first day of this Pura Cup match against South Australia at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart. Continuing a spectacular late season rally, the Tigers were in command from close to the outset of the day's play, opener Jamie Cox (102) and Shane Watson (87*) sealing that dominance on the way to a score of 4/268 by stumps.

Now 31, Cox has been the heart and soul of Tasmania's batting line-up for years. At 19, former Queenslander Watson - reportedly just days away from signing a new contract with his adopted state - represents a great hope for its long-term future. The pair played different types of innings but equally effective ones.

Against a bowling attack that struggled to vindicate the wisdom of captain Greg Blewett's decision to invite the Tasmanians to bat first, there were just the four bad moments for the locals today. And two of them came in the one over as Dene Hills (50) unwisely padded up and then Michael DiVenuto (0) played across the line at deliveries moved back into them by medium pacer Mike Smith (3/62).

Save for the efforts of Smith - who upstaged his teammates by revealing that the maintenance of consistent line and length from the attack as a whole might have brought with it a substantially better outcome - it was a lacklustre display from South Australia. Young paceman Paul Rofe (0/63) also strove valiantly but the task of disrupting the Tasmanians' progress proved more difficult for the likes of Mark Harrity (1/57) and Peter McIntyre (0/41). There was significant assistance in the pitch for the Redbacks for much of the day but they struggled to exploit it.

In contrast to Cox, who took as many as ninety-seven minutes and used up as many as eighty deliveries to push his score into double figures, Watson was not so content to afford the bowlers respect. From early on, he was confident, a trait underlined by assertive footwork and decisive strokeplay. Predictions about any nineteen year old's future in the game can become odious but it already seems fair to say that this one has the stamp of something special about him.

There was glorious cutting, superb straight driving, and skilled placement. He even joined in on the increasingly familiar Tasmanian practice of landing a ball in the scorers' box by crashing a pull stroke through a window beyond the square leg boundary. At 62 (a score which had already given him his third half century in the space of four first-class innings) came his only real moment of anxiety as he survived an imploring caught behind appeal from Harrity.

Cox was significantly more scratchy. But, in mitigation, he had to endure a particularly difficult period through the early part of the day as the ball swung, seamed and came through to wicketkeeper Graham Manou at variable heights. He played and missed several times and was given a life with his score at two when he drove a Rofe delivery straight into and out of the hands of silly mid off.

Hills (on 20) was also offered an early reprieve when second slip fieldsman Shane Deitz grassed a catch at ankle height after a delivery from Harrity had been outside edged. It proved a costly miss, the Tasmanian openers proceeding to add 106 runs for the first wicket before Smith finally struck.

Faced with bowling that was often too short or wayward in direction, the Tasmanians started the day by refusing to be drawn into playing at wide deliveries and by showing themselves to be content merely to defend anything on line. It was only once Watson established himself at the wicket that the rate of scoring took the right sort of incline to truly please the smattering of spectators.

Given that both sides are missing their international players; that others are injured; and that the loser of this match is likely to end with the wooden spoon, the precursors for excitement were hardly in place as the day's play began. Even under glorious blue skies, the first two hours did little to shake that belief. But those who stayed away ultimately missed the chance to witness some excellent cricket. They also surrendered the opportunity to feast their eyes on one man who continues to be one of the most skilled modern-day practitioners in Australian domestic cricket and a teenager who is likely to become another of its elite.

© 2001 CricInfo Ltd