Peirson bats Queensland to a chance of first Shield win

Jimmy Peirson has batted Queensland towards hope of their first Sheffield Shield victory of the summer against Victoria, after a helter-skelter day two at the MCG.

On a day where 15 wickets fell in the first two sessions, Queensland went to stumps at 8-195 in their second innings and leading by 244.

Peirson was out pulling for 82 just before the close, but not before combining for a crucial 119-run eighth-wicket partnership with Mark Steketee (48 not out).

The two-and-a-half-hour vigil between the pair was at complete odds with the rest of the day, and left the low-scoring match hanging slightly in Queensland's favour ahead of Sunday's play, which will start early at 10am.

After Victoria began on Saturday at 2-43, they lost Peter Handscomb in the first over when he edged Xavier Bartlett to Matt Renshaw at second slip.

That set the tone for the next four hours of play, as Bartlett finished with 5-32 and rain hovered around the MCG for part of the morning.

Only Marcus Harris (42), Handscomb (24) and Tom Rogers (11) reached double figures for Victoria as they were all out for 123 to concede a 49-run first-innings deficit.

The chaos then continued into Queensland's second innings.

In-form Fergus O'Neill took two wickets in his first over to remove Bryce Street (one) and Angus Lovell (0), while having another lbw shout turned down.

Renshaw looked in imperious form for Queensland, driving in the air and punching the ball off his pads.

But he too fell inside the first 10 overs, caught down legside off O'Neill (3-21) as Queensland's batting began to falter.

Jonathan Merlo also claimed a brilliant one-handed diving catch at point to remove Ben McDermott (three), as one of three quick wickets for quick Sam Elliott.

Queensland then found themselves 7-67 just before tea, and a drought-breaking first win of the season against ladder-leaders Victoria was looking shaky.

Enter Peirson.

He and Steketee became the only batsmen to look comfortable all day, with the wicketkeeper-batsman driving the Victoria quicks when they erred too full.

Peirson also cut and pulled well as the innings went on, and hit spinner Todd Murphy for two boundaries through the covers in one over.

Steketee also did some damage, hitting four boundaries in his knock and sending Murphy deep over the long-on boundary.

And while Peirson was set up by late by Mitch Perry and caught in a stacked legside field, he and Steketee had given Queensland the slight advantage.

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