ADELAIDE, Oct 19 AAP - What a difference a day makes.

A day after relinquishing the Victorian vice-captaincy to focus on his batting, opener Matthew Elliott showed instant results with a man-of-the-match performance to cap an ING Cup thrashing of South Australia at Adelaide Oval today.

Elliott top-scored with a dashing 74 from 73 balls as Victoria easily overtook SA's 192 all out, scoring 2-193 in just 35.2 overs, to gain the maximum five points, including one bonus point, from its opening limited overs match of the season.

Elliott said his move to hand over the vice-captaincy to ex-skipper Darren Berry, and effectively the captaincy with captain Shane Warne unavailable for much of the season on international duties, had lifted a burden from his shoulders and seemed to boost the team as well.

"I felt a million dollars today, I suppose it's only natural sometimes that those sort of things happen," he said.

"It's maybe like a footy team winning after changing coaches.

"I just felt in myself fantastic today, I really enjoyed fielding, and Chuck (Berry) did a great job with the boys, keeping them up and squeezing the total down, so all-in-all it was a pretty good day."

It was a stunning turnaround for the Bushrangers, who yesterday suffered an outright Pura Cup loss to SA here, and were looking in serious trouble early in today's match.

SA, sent into bat, piled on 107 runs without a wicket within the first 20 overs, and looked likely to set a target of at least 250, possibly 300.

Openers Greg Blewett (67) and David Fitzgerald (54) looked extremely comfortable and were scoring easily until Fitzgerald was run out attempting a suicidal single.

Victoria pounced on the opportunity, with left-arm paceman Mathew Inness snapping up three quick wickets, one in each of his fifth, sixth and seventh overs to suddenly put the Redbacks under pressure and spark an unexpected and massive SA collapse.

The Redbacks lost 10-84, including the last nine wickets for just 46, with four of the SA bottom seven making ducks, and the other three scoring just 13 runs between them.

Inness finished with the best figures of 3-33, while Shane Harwood and Ian Hewett each took two wickets, and Hewett also took a miraculous diving catch at point to dismiss Ryan Harris off Andrew McDonald's bowling.

Victoria then made light of the run-chase, with Elliott and Nick Jewell (44) putting on an opening partnership of 107 in less than 18 overs, Elliott's regular lofted boundaries a highlight.

Ex-Victorian off-spinner John Davison eventually captured the wickets of both openers to finish with 2-36, but Brad Hodge (34 not out from 54 balls) and Ian Harvey (33 not out from 33 balls) ensured the Bushrangers cruised to victory with an unbeaten 59-run stand.

New skipper Berry said the character his team had shown to come back from a difficult situation at the end of five tough days of cricket was a good sign.

"Last night the dressing room was pretty flat ... we got together last night and had a good chat and knew that today was a new competition and we had to bounce back and bounce back we certainly did," he said.

© 2002 AAP

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