\n
![\"Victoria](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1753503308_17_placeholder.png\")
\n Victoria Men
\n VIC<\/p>\n
Steve Smith has again shown he’s in fine touch ahead of the Ashes, but his half century couldn’t stop NSW conceding a 254-run first-innings deficit to Victoria<\/p>\n
NSW v Victoria | Sheffield Shield | Day 2<\/p>\n
Steve Smith has clearly found his hands ahead of the Ashes, but even his half century couldn’t stop a star-studded NSW falling well behind Victoria at the SCG.<\/p>\n
Smith was the only Blues batter to pass 20 on Tuesday as a Sam Elliott five-wicket haul had NSW all out for 128 in Sydney, well short of Victoria’s first-innings of 382.<\/p>\n
The visitors than opted not to enforce the follow on and went to stumps on day two at 2-56, with a massive lead of 308.<\/p>\n
NSW are fielding a bowling attack of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon for this match, with Starc and Lyon both taking four wickets in the first innings.<\/p>\n
But there is a gulf in the batting with Peter Handscomb’s century on day one putting Victoria well on top.<\/p>\n
Smith brings out classic shots in lone hand for NSW<\/p>\n
Smith looked in great touch ahead of the first Test against England in Perth next Friday.<\/p>\n
After scoring a century against Queensland in his first match of the summer against Queensland late last month, Smith was almost as good for his 57 on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Seven of the right-hander’s 10 boundaries came through glorious drives, punching anything full back past the bowler with Will Sutherland copping the brunt of it.<\/p>\n
Smith enjoyed a lengthy holiday in New York in the lead up to this summer and did not pick up a bat for close to six weeks.<\/p>\n
The 36-year-old often talks about finding his hands and on return to Australia insisted he only needed a few hits to find his best again.<\/p>\n
He has proven exactly that over the past fortnight.<\/p>\n
But while Smith barely looked troubled until he became the second last man to fall on 57, it was like the rest of NSW were batting on a different pitch.<\/p>\n
Sam Konstas showed patience and faced 59 balls for his 12, before he was dismissed by Scott Boland for a sixth time when one seamed back into off stump.<\/p>\n
Elliott shines amongst stars with maiden Shield five-for<\/p>\n
Elliott also inspired a collapse of 6-27, when he had Josh Phillippe and Jack Edwards both caught in the slips and Sean Abbott at point.<\/p>\n
Smith skied the right-armer to mid on trying to pull him before Elliott claimed his first five-wicket haul when he bowled Hazlewood to finish with 5-26.<\/p>\n
Sheffield Shield 2025-26 standings<\/p>\n
Team<\/p>\n
\n Matches played\n <\/p>\n
M<\/p>\n
\n Wins\n <\/p>\n
W<\/p>\n
\n Losses\n <\/p>\n
L<\/p>\n
\n Drawn\n <\/p>\n
D<\/p>\n
\n No results\n <\/p>\n
N\/R<\/p>\n
\n Deductions\n <\/p>\n
Ded.<\/p>\n
\n Batting Bonus\n <\/p>\n
Bat<\/p>\n
\n Bowling Bonus\n <\/p>\n
Bowl<\/p>\n
\n Total points\n <\/p>\n
PTS<\/p>\n
1
\n
\n Victoria Men
\n VIC<\/p>\n
3
\n 3
\n 0
\n 0
\n 0
\n 0
\n 2.39
\n 2.6
\n 22.99<\/p>\n
2
\n
\n Queensland Bulls
\n QLD<\/p>\n
3
\n 1
\n 0
\n 2
\n 0
\n 0
\n 4.9
\n 2.3
\n 15.2<\/p>\n
3
\n
\n NSW Men
\n NSW<\/p>\n
3
\n 1
\n 1
\n 1
\n 0
\n 0
\n 1.55
\n 2.8
\n 11.35<\/p>\n
4
\n
\n Tasmanian Tigers Men
\n TAS<\/p>\n
3
\n 1
\n 1
\n 1
\n 0
\n 2
\n 1.63
\n 2.2
\n 8.83<\/p>\n
5
\n
\n South Australia Men
\n SA<\/p>\n
3
\n 0
\n 2
\n 1
\n 0
\n 0
\n 1.3
\n 2.6
\n 4.9<\/p>\n
6
\n
\n Western Australia Men
\n WA<\/p>\n
3
\n 0
\n 2
\n 1
\n 0
\n 0
\n 0.66
\n 3
\n 4.66<\/p>\n
Legend<\/p>\n
M: Matches played<\/p>\n
W: Wins<\/p>\n
L: Losses<\/p>\n
D: Drawn<\/p>\n
N\/R: No results<\/p>\n
Ded.: Deductions<\/p>\n
Bat: Batting Bonus<\/p>\n
Bowl: Bowling Bonus<\/p>\n
PTS: Total points<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steve Smith has again shown he’s in fine touch ahead of the Ashes, but his half century couldn’t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85,83],"class_list":["post-277209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}