HOBART, Dec 20 AAP - Queensland's Martin Love emphasised his claims for higher honours today by hitting 190 and virtually ensuring there can be only one winner in the Pura Cup match against Tasmania in Hobart.

Love's long innings, a masterpiece of concentration on a variable Bellerive Oval wicket, enabled Queensland to declare its first innings at 8-408.

At stumps on the second day, after bad light ended play seven overs early, Tasmania was 2-50, with captain Jamie Cox 19 and Scott Mason 15.

Love, 28, must surely be at the top of the queue to go to the West Indies in April as the reserve top order batsman.

He's already hit two double centuries against England this season - for Queensland and Australia A.

Love is a serial Tiger tormenter. In his career he's hit eight centuries against them, all but two over 150.

But a double century eludes him. Three times he's got to the 180s and today's was his highest score.

It wasn't his most fluent innings and he had his share of luck, but it was head and shoulders above what anyone else could manage on a wicket that sometimes kept alarmingly low and made sweet timing almost impossible.

He batted for 514 minutes, hit 28 fours, gave one tough chance last night on 103 and was bowled off a no ball shortly after play resumed this morning.

Love and Lee Carseldine, resuming at 4-249, buried Tasmania's hopes by batting through the morning session.

When Carseldine finally went for 55 - the second highest score - just after lunch, they'd put on 156 runs.

That started a mini collapse, which included Love when he sliced a drive to gully.

The damage, all too late from Tasmania's point of view, was done by two part-time bowlers, Scott Kremerskothen, who finished with 3-53, and Dan Marsh, 2-79.

However some lusty hitting by Wade Seccombe (25 no) and Joe Dawes (19 no) took the Bulls past 400 and enabled Jimmy Maher to declare and leave Tasmania five tricky overs to survive before tea.

Cox and Michael Di Venuto did that, but not much more.

Di Venuto fell for three - perhaps unluckily given lbw - just after the break and Michael Dighton went shortly afterwards, bowled for eight by Ashley Noffke with a ball that kept outrageously low.

However Cox and Mason batted on for a further hour in the growing gloom.

© 2002 AAP NewsWire

This report does not necessarily represent the views of the Australian Cricket Board.