New South Wales tied everyone but Ian Harvey down here today as Victoria finished about 50 runs short of its goal on day one of its Pura Cup cricket match at Punt Rd.

The Bushrangers were 6-221 at stumps, with Darren Berry caught behind off the last ball of the day to give Test leg-spinner Stuart MacGill 3-65 from 24.1 overs.

Coming in at No.4, Harvey continued his impressive start to the domestic season, scoring 55 off 66 balls with 11 fours.

Bushrangers captain Matthew Elliott wanted about 260-270 after winning the toss and praised the NSW attack, which gave the batsmen few loose balls.

"They stuck at their task pretty well and made it difficult for us - if they had bowled a lot of rubbish, we would have liked to have capitalised on it," he said.

"I thought we fought back pretty well - just that wicket at the end.

"This year we have a 'happy' knack of losing the wicket or (otherwise) taking the gloss off....5-220 - I thought that would have been a pretty good effort on that wicket.

"The ground was slow, they bowled pretty well at times in the game."

Opening bowlers Nathan Bracken (26 overs, 1-44) and Stuart Clark (24, 1-46) made run scoring extremely tough, while MacGill also impressed.

Apart from taking wickets, MacGill's noted temper briefly simmered in the 60th over when the Blues botched a run-out attempt.

MacGill toe-poked the stumps at the bowler's end when the Blues missed the chance to dismiss Michael Klinger.

Victoria was 1-13 off 16 overs after the first hour, setting up a slow day's cricket.

Elliott could manage only two, while fellow opener Jason Arnberger (47), Matthew Mott (35), Brad Hodge (44) and Klinger (27) failed to make the most of their starts.

The forecast is also not good, with rain likely to settle in over the weekend. Punt Rd does not drain quickly and, with no lighting, there is no chance of extending play if there is a rain delay.

© 2001 AAP