Matthew Short followed up his first-innings 70 with a rapid 119 as Victoria extended their dominance over South Australia in another fast-moving day at the Junction Oval in Melbourne. At Stumps on Day 2, the hosts held an overall lead of 340 runs with two second-innings wickets still in the bag.
Victoria had edged ahead of their opponents in a 15-wicket opening day despite being bowled out for 169 in their first innings. South Australia were reduced to 75/5 in response, a situation they couldn’t remedy on the second morning. The visitors added only 39 runs before losing the remaining five wickets. Fergus O’Neill claimed three of the wickets to fall, finishing with figurs of 4 for 28 while captain Will Sutherland polished off the final two wickets.
In their second innings, Victoria were swiftly reduced to 23/3 by Spencer Johnson before Short brought his counter-attacking ways to the middle once. He hit 15 fours and a six in his knock of 119, putting on crucial stands with Campbell Kellaway (28) and Sutherland (43) along the way. The tail then wagged to push the lead even higher.
Brief scores: Victoria 169 & 285/8 (Matthew Short 119, Will Sutherland 43; Spencer Johnson 5-72) lead South Australia 114 by 340 runs
Josh Inglis hit a fine century as table-toppers Western Australia posted 300 on the opening day of their clasha against Tasmania at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart. Asked to bat first, WA lost opener Cameron Bancroft cheaply but a steady partnership between captain Sam Whiteman (40) and Teague Wyllie (28) settled the visitors once. After Beau Webster and Jackson Bird combined to take another clump of wickets, Inglis got together with Hilton Cartwright (56) for a 66-run stand for the fifth wicket.
Inglis stayed on to score a breezy 116 off just 134 balls before he was the ninth batter out. Bird finished with a four-fer for Tasmania. The hosts had only three overs to see out before the close of play but lost opener Caleb Jewell to Matthew Kelly in that tricky period.
Brief scores: Western Australia 300 (Josh Inglis 116, Hilton Cartwright 56; Jackson Bird 4-51) lead Tasmania 5/1 (Matthew Kelly 1-3) by 295 runs.
Matthew Gikes missed out on a century but his knock of 94 and a 91-run stand for the eighth wicket with Chris Green (52) helped NSW salvage a score of 311/9 on the opening day of their fixture against Queensland at The Gabba. Put into bat, NSW were reduced to 60/3 despite starts for Daniel Hughes and Moises Henriques. In fact, not kicking on became a theme of the NSW top-order with as many as five players – besides Gikes – in the top seven passing 20 but none managing more than 34. It needed Green and Gikes’ stand to lift the visitors after they were reduced to 202/7.
While Green dominated the stand with his 52 off 69, it was the keeper-bat Gikes that held the innings together with his steady knock of 94. He was dismissed six short of what would have been a fine century in the 94th over of the day’s play.
Brief scores: New South Wales 311/9 (Matthew Gikes 94, Chris Green 52; Xavier Bartlett 3-45, Jack Sinfield 3-70) vs Queensland
