Matthew Short's ton puts Victoria in a commanding position

Matthew Short continued his golden run with bat in hand with a rapid 119 in the second innings followed by a first innings 70 as Victoria extended their supremacy over South Australia in another action packed day at the Junction Oval in Melbourne. The hosts held an overall lead of 340 runs with two wickets still in the bag at stumps on Day 2. 

Despite getting bowled out for 169 in their first innings, Victoria had edged ahead of their opponents. South Australia were reduced to 75/5 in reply on the opening day, a situation they couldn’t improve on the second day. They could only muster 39 runs before losing the remaining five wickets. Fergus O'Neill picked three of the wickets to fail, ending the figures of 4 for 28 while skipper Will Sutherland capped off with two wickets. 

In their second innings, Victoria were reeling at 23/3 courtesy Spencer Johnson before Short provided the counter punch to revitalise the faltering innings. He smashed 15 fours and a six in his startling knock of 119, putting on crucial stands with Campbell Kellaway (28) and Sutherland (43) along the way. The tail then added a few runs to extend the lead further. 

Brief scores: Victoria 169 & 285/8 (Matthew Short 119, Will Sutherland 43; Spencer Johnson 5-72) lead South Australia 114 by 340 runs