Victoria registered its first points of the season, and Tasmania added to a sparse tally as well. But it was an otherwise unsatisfying result for the competition's two bottom-placed teams when their ING Cup clash was washed out here at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart.

The sides were left to share the competition points - claiming two each - when the rains that hit the ground after 42.1 overs of an impressive Victorian innings proved so persistent as to dispel at least two attempts at a restart.

It represented a poor return for the Bushrangers, who had cashed in on the presence of a placid Bellerive pitch to race to a scoreline of 3/223 in the lead-up to the stoppage. Opening batsman and captain Matthew Elliott (118*) led the way, combining with Brad Hodge (60) and Rob Bartlett (40) in dominating stands that made light work of an unimposing, albeit luckless, Tasmanian attack.

With Bartlett - a prolific run scorer in Melbourne grade cricket who has waited eight years to play his second match for his state - an aggressive Elliott added 85 runs for the opening wicket in a partnership that fully justified his decision to bat first upon winning the toss.

Another 129 runs flowed in an association with Hodge that swelled to become Victoria's all-time best in one-day cricket for the second wicket against Tasmania.

Like Bartlett, Elliott played and missed outside the line of off stump more than once through the early part of his innings, and his first runs came with a nervous push at David Saker (1/28) that sent a delivery spearing past wicketkeeper Sean Clingeleffer off the outside edge.

But he quickly found his touch, and exploited increasing errors in the bowlers' length and width to collect runs at will both through and over the infield. His sense of improvisation was also impressive.

It was the stylish left hander's second century in the space of a week in Hobart, after his unbeaten innings of 135 helped Victoria avert outright defeat in a Pura Cup contest last Monday.

Things brightened temporarily for the Tasmanians when Hodge was shifted by a yorker from Josh Marquet (1/48) and Ian Harvey (0) was a first-ball run out victim, removed by a brilliant pick up and throw from Shane Watson, on his knees, at mid on.

But the locals' recovery was short-lived. Just seven minutes after Harvey's dismissal came the day's first evidence of drizzle and, though the players were close to resuming the contest twice in mid-afternoon, there was ultimately no further action.

Tasmania could count itself fortunate. It confronted the prospect of scoring a mammoth 265 runs off 42 overs to win under the Duckworth/Lewis method as the umpires made an ultimately aborted attempt at one restart, and the situation wouldn't have become any easier with further reductions. As many as 230 runs would have been needed from a 30-over innings; 207 from 25; or even 143 from a 15-over slog.

Curator Peter Apps and his groundstaff have already laid their covers down 13 times at the ground this season. That's as many occasions as the wicket square has needed to be shielded from the elements in the entirety of the two preceding years.

© 2001 CricInfo Ltd