O'Neill, Perry take five wickets each to dismiss Bulls for 172

Victorian paceman Fergus O'Neill has produced an over of magic to put the Bushrangers on top of their Sheffield Shield encounter with Queensland at the MCG.

O'Neill (5-51) and Mitchell Perry (5-33) wreaked havoc to skittle Queensland for 172 on Friday, with only Matt Renshaw (59) and tail-ender Mark Steketee (44no off 40 balls) putting up any resistance for the Bulls.

Rain brought an early end to day one, with Victoria 2-43 when play was called off.

Experienced Victorian duo Marcus Harris (26no) and Peter Handscomb (9no) will resume on Saturday, with Campbell Kellaway (3) and Jonathan Merlo (4) already back in the sheds.

Perry and O'Neill were the stars of the show on Friday.

Queensland crawled to 0-16 from eight overs before O'Neill snared 3-0 in the space of six deliveries.

O'Neill started his rampage by clean bowling Bryce Street for two when the opener shouldered arms to a wildly swinging delivery. 

Angus Lovell was caught at second slip for a duck three balls later, and Jack Clayton became O'Neill's third victim of the over when he was clean bowled.

Clayton, who like Street had shouldered arms, stood at the crease in disbelief for several seconds after watching the ball swing into the stumps from way outside off.

Renshaw did his best to steady the ship, and Steketee pummelled some handy runs.

But there was no stopping O'Neill, who added Jack Wildermuth (17) and Mitch Swepson (15) to his list of victims.

Perry was just as good on the way to his career-best bowling figures in a first-class match.

The 24-year-old snared the key scalps of Ben McDermott and Jimmy Peirson in the space of three balls as Queensland crashed to 5-56.

Perry removed Renshaw later in the innings.

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	6	3	1	2	0	0	4.63	5.3	29.93
2 Victoria Men VIC	6	3	2	1	0	0	3.76	5.3	28.06
3 NSW Men NSW	6	2	2	2	0	0	5.5	4.7	24.2
4 Western Australia Men WA	6	2	2	2	0	0	5.11	4.8	23.91
5 Queensland Bulls QLD	6	1	2	3	0	0	4.71	5.6	19.31
6 Tasmanian Tigers Men TAS	6	1	3	2	0	0	6.05	4.6	18.65

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