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Career best ... Johnson took 6-51 off 20 hours. Pic: AAP
JUBILANT Queensland captain Jimmy Maher struggled to keep his emotions in check after he exorcised his finals demons by leading the Bulls to its sixth Pura Cup/Sheffield Shield title today.
For the first time as skipper, Maher, 32, could finally say he had held aloft a trophy from an Australian domestic competition after failing in his previous five attempts.
The pain that lingered from those defeats was quickly forgotten as the Bulls romped to an emphatic innings and 354 run triumph over Victoria at the Gabba.
Maher slammed down the first beer in what is sure to be a lengthy week of celebrations and declared after the match: "Those losses make victory that much sweeter."
He would know.
Two years ago, Maher and Queensland were handed a crushing innings defeat by the Bushrangers at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, where Victoria batted the Bulls out of the game.
Victoria scored 710 over the better part of three days as it made the most of an insipidly flat wicket after being sent in by Maher.
Today's victory was sweet revenge after Queensland had earlier posted a record-breaking first innings total of 6-900 declared that lasted 242 overs and kept Victoria in the field for more than 16 hours.
Four players – Maher (223), Shane Watson (201no), Clinton Perren (173) and Martin Love (169) – made tons.
"We'll never forget that day in Melbourne," Maher said.
"We copped it left, right and centre ... we were cooked.
"That day in Melbourne I said I knew what it felt like to be a real bull because all we did was look at grass.
"They ran into a Queensland side (this time) that was hungrier than you've ever seen. The last side that was this hungry was in 1994-1995, and we'd never won it then."
Victoria was finally put out of its misery by Andy Bichel at 2.57pm (AEDT) today, when it was bowled out in its second innings for 202.
The loss was registered as the Bushrangers' worst ever defeat in the state's proud 115-year history in Australian first-class cricket.
"It definitely hurts," Victoria skipper Cameron White said.
Maher's double century earned the former Australia international limited-overs opening batsman man-of-the-match honours despite a late surge by promising fast bowler Mitchell Johnson.
Johnson became a one-man wrecking ball during Victoria's second innings, taking 6-51 to finish with 10 wickets for the match.
Leg spinner Daniel Doran claimed 3-33 as the Bushrangers batsmen floundered on a pitch that started to play tricks.
Maher was again forced to defend his stand of not declaring earlier after the Bulls became just the first team in 80 years to reach 900 runs in an innings in Australia.
"Any one who's had a go at us is uneducated," he said.
"Surely they can't think we were that stupid (to not want to win the match outright).
"We still set ourselves 116, 115 overs to bowl (after the declaration) and I had Ashley Noffke, who lost 4kg in three days (and) couldn't get out of bed/
"Shane Watson had done his calf.
"We set out to play this game like a normal Pura Cup match. The only difference was we got 900 in 240 overs."
Maher, from Innisfail, dedicated his innings and the victory – the biggest in a Pura Cup/Sheffield Shield final – to the victims of Cyclone Larry, which savaged Far North Queensland last week.
Scoreboard
Victoria 1st Innings 344
Queensland 1st Innings 6-900 declared
Victoria 2nd Innings
L MASH b Johnson 0
J ARNBERGER c sub (Phillipson) b Johnson 2
N JEWELL c sub (Philipson) b Doran 69
B HODGE c Noffke b Johnson 28
D HUSSEY b Doran 37
C WHITE c Hartley b Doran 9
J MOSS c Stevens b Johnson 13
N PILON c Hartley b Johnson 8
S HARWOOD c Hartley b Johnson 3
M LEWIS not out 13
D NANNES c Stevens b Bichel 2
Sundries (6b 1lb 1w 10nb) 18
TOTAL: 202
Fall: 3, 4, 38, 115, 131, 163, 177, 182, 195, 202.
Bowling: A Bichel 21-4-80-1 (1w 2nb), M Johnson 20-4-51-6 (8nb), A Noffke 4-0-20-0, J Hopes 5-2-7-0, L Stevens 1-0-4-0, D Doran 9-1-33-3.
Batting time: 258 mins. Overs: 60.
QUEENSLAND WON outright by an innings and 354 runs.
Toss: Victoria
Umpires: P.D. Parker, R.L. Parry
Match referee: R.G. Archer
AAP
