Webster falls cheaply as Perry takes five

Test allrounder Beau Webster was knocked over cheaply while Mitchell Perry continued his outstanding start to the season with a five-wicket haul to hand Victoria a narrow but important lead over Tasmania at the Junction Oval.

Perry claimed the second best figures of his Sheffield Shield career, 5 for 58, as Tasmania were bowled out for 232 on day two with wicketkeeper Jake Doran continuing his excellent start to the season with a fighting 73 on a difficult batting surface.

Victoria turned a 24-run first innings lead into 59 by stumps for the loss of only Harry Dixon.

Webster, in his first Shield innings of the summer, was clean bowled for 11 by a cracking delivery from Will Sutherland that snaked back through the gate off the seam as he tried to defend on the front foot.

That backed up some great early work that Perry, Fergus O'Neill and Todd Murphy and left Tasmania struggling at 126 for 7. After Perry had made the big breakthrough on the first night dismissing Test hopeful Jake Weatherald for a duck, O'Neill took two key wickets on the second morning. He had nightwatcher Gabe Bell caught behind and then later trapped Tim Ward lbw from around the after he had played nicely for his 42.

Ward and Caleb Jewell had put together a 50-run stand in challenging conditions in the morning against a ball that was still relatively new.

The introduction of spin turned the momentum back in Victoria's favour. Todd Murphy extracted some turn to have Jewell caught at slip as he lunged forward to defend.

Perry returned from the southern end and had Brad Hope and Jordan Silk caught down the leg side in almost identical fashion either side of Ward's dismissal. Tasmania lost 3 for 2 and 4 for 18 in 11.1 overs. When Webster fell five overs later Tasmania were staring a three-figure first innings deficit in the fcae.

But Doran and Nikhil Chaudhary dug them out of trouble with an excellent 60-run eighth-wicket stand. Doran rode his luck early, top edging a pull shot over the keeper. But thereafter he played with great control off the back foot to the quicks and handled Murphy with ease including launching him against the turn over long-on.

Chaudhary struck five boundaries in his 38 and scarcely looked troubled as he rotated the strike beautifully. But he was the architect of his own demise when he fell for a short ball trap, pulling a Perry bouncer with no control to a well placed man at deep square.

That left Tasmania 186 for 8, still 70 runs behind Victoria's first innings total. However, Doran extracted another 46 runs with Kieran Elliot and Riley Meredith, who contributed just three between them. Doran was the last man out, clean bowled trying to lunch Perry down the ground. It handed Perry his third five-wicket haul in Shield cricket and made it 13 wickets in five bowling innings so far this season.

Victoria's lead swelled in a 14-over final session with Dixon and Campbell Kellaway playing positively. Dixon struck four crisp boundaries, including a couple of superb cover drives, in his 19 before the extra pace of Meredith caused a mistake. He attempted to leave a rising delivery outside off but failed to withdraw his bat in time and it came off the bottom edge onto the stumps.