McSweeney digs in but Boland, O'Neill give Vics the upper hand

Victoria have given themselves a mighty chance of upsetting Sheffield Shield leaders South Australia and strengthening their prospects of qualifying for the final.

At stumps on day two, Victoria are 0-46, a lead of 48 runs, after restricting the visitors to 283 in reply to their first-innings total of 285 in Melbourne.

After making a first-innings duck, former Test opener Marcus Harris (17no) is unbeaten and will resume on Saturday morning alongside opening partner Campbell Kellaway, who is 23 not out.

Normally a batting-friendly pitch at Junction Oval, SA decided to bowl first on Thursday when they saw a pitch full of grass.

However, warm weather in Melbourne could see the pitch flatten out as the game progresses and runs easier to come by in the second innings.

Three-Test opener Nathan McSweeney's patient 60 was the backbone of SA's innings, as Victoria quicks Fergus O'Neill (5-51) and Scott Boland (4-53) caused carnage.

Boland started the rot late on Thursday, picking up both of SA's openers to leave them teetering at 2-40 at stumps on day one.

"We're in a really good spot now so hopefully we can bat for majority of the day tomorrow and then set up an entertaining game where they try and chase whatever we set," Boland said at stumps on Friday.

"Hopefully, we get in a good enough position that we can dictate how many runs we want and how many overs we want to bowl tomorrow night.

"It's a pretty good cricket wicket, the game's where the scores are around 250-300, there's a bit there for everyone."

McSweeney had solid help from Harry Nielsen (45), Jake Lehmann (40), Ben Manenti (34) and Liam Scott (32), but no one was able to contain Boland and O'Neill for long enough.

A win would secure SA a home final, potentially at Adelaide Oval, as they hunt a first Shield title in 29 years.

Victoria sit fourth on the table with two games to play, but are more than close enough to leapfrog NSW and WA into second.

The hosts are without captain Will Sutherland, who is resting from this game after a heavy workload this summer across all formats.

Sheffield Shield standings 2024-25

Team	Matches played M	Wins W	Losses L	Drawn D	No results N/R	Deductions Ded.	Batting Bonus Bat	Bowling Bonus Bowl	Total points PTS
1 South Australia Men SA	10	6	1	3	0	0	7.61	9	55.61
2 Queensland Bulls QLD	10	3	3	4	0	0	9.06	8.7	39.76
3 Victoria Men VIC	10	4	5	1	0	0	5.19	9.3	39.49
4 NSW Men NSW	10	3	4	3	0	0	6.99	8.4	36.39
5 Tasmanian Tigers Men TAS	10	3	5	2	0	0	7.72	8.2	35.92
6 Western Australia Men WA	10	3	4	3	0	0	5.83	8.6	35.43

Legend

M: Matches played

W: Wins

L: Losses

D: Drawn

N/R: No results

Ded.: Deductions

Bat: Batting Bonus

Bowl: Bowling Bonus

PTS: Total points