Ben Taylor again showed his class with the bat as Bective-East started their 2023-24 campaign in winning fashion at No.1 Oval on Saturday.
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The former Australian under 19 reps 77 stood out glaringly in a game where the next best score, for either side, was 23.
"The deck was pretty hard to bat on so for him to end up with 77, that was probably the big game changer in the end," Bulls captain Jye Paterson said.
Underlining what a valuable asset he is for them, he scored more than half of the Bulls' 139-run total.
Their next best with 17, asked what Taylor did differently to the rest of them, Paterson noted his concentration.
He also, when he got the loose ball, "put it away pretty well".
"That was probably the big thing," he said.
"When he got the loose ball he really put it away but then anything else he dug in and kind of just noodled around singles and worked really hard."
The previous two seasons only playing the second half, this time they have him for the full season, which Paterson will be "massive" for them.
"Just everything, bat, ball, field; he just brings a bit of confidence to the team I guess," he said.
The other big in this season is stalwart, and the man Paterson took over from, Adam Jones. He has stepped back up from fourth grade.
He didn't have an impact with the bat on Saturday but did with the ball, claiming 3-9 and cleaning up the Souths tail as the Bulls rolled them for 94.
With the way the deck was playing, Paterson said he was pretty confident defending 139.
"Half-way through the innings I said to mum (who he was scoring with) 120 I would be pretty happy with," he said.
Early wickets only fortified his confidence, with Souths 4-20 at one stage.
Luke Smith (23), Charlie Stone (21) and skipper Tom Groth (18no) showed some resistance through the middle of the innings but Paterson always felt like they had things under control.
He played a big role with the ball snaring 3-16.
"The deck probably helped my bowling skills out a bit," he said.
"It was quite low, wasn't really bouncing a heap.
"How I've always bowled is, I bowl stump-to-stump and hopefully someone makes a mistake, and a few of them did thankfully."
After having the bye the first week, he said it was good to get into the season, and start with a win.
"It's definitely a good confident boost," he said.
Earlier Conrad George and Chris Skilton both snared three wickets for Souths, the former striking with his first ball his first two overs.
