Victoria 209 and 1 for 78 lead New South Wales 260 (Henriques 97, Sutherland 4-57) by 27 runs

Will Sutherland triggered a Victoria fightback to leave their Sheffield Shield clash with New South Wales nicely poised after Moises Henriques threatened to take the game away from the home team.

NSW were dismissed for 260, a first innings lead of 51, but they would have hoped for a bigger advantage after being 2 for 155 just before lunch.

Henriques scored 97, striking ten fours and a six in his fluent 179-ball innings, but the Blues bid to build a big first-innings lead was scuppered by two collapses.

They lost two clumps of three wickets cheaply and were just four ahead when they went eight down, before the tail added 47 handy runs.

Paceman Sutherland was prominent in the hosts' resurgence. He dismissed Jason Sangha (44) just before lunch leaving NSW 3 for 156 at the break, ending a 107-run third-wicket stand with Henriques.

Early in the second session Sutherland's athletic dive and fine throw from mid on resulted in Matthew Gilkes being run out, and he then had Sean Abbott caught behind as NSW lost 3 for 7.

Henriques and wicketkeeper Baxter Holt grabbed back the initiative with a seventh-wicket stand of 48.

Victoria hit back late in the session taking 3-3, just after the visitors moved ahead on first innings. Holt was caught behind off Sam Elliott, Henriques was trapped lbw by spinner Todd Murphy, who also had Chris Green caught and finished with 3 for 44 off 16 overs.

The tail wagged with Chris Tremain scoring a brisk 24 not out, with both he and Adam Zampa hitting a six.

Victoria had Sam Harper and Jon Holland subbed out after testing positive for Covid-19. Captain Peter Handscomb performed admirably behind the stumps in place of Harper, taking four catches.

Henriques was the only NSW wicket-taker, trapping Travis Dean lbw after a brisk 46 which included five fours off two wayward overs from Mickey Edwards.