Campion College are on the brink of winning their first Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/Grace Shield title as they continue to hold a strong hand against St George’s College at the end of day two at Melbourne Cricket Club yesterday.

In their second innings, St George’s College showed an even more positive batting display and progressed to 225, which gave them a 165-run lead.

Saad Ahmad (22 no) and Neil Jonson (12 no) will resume batting for Campion College at 48-1, still 117 runs behind heading into today’s third and final day.

Scores: St George’s College 98 & 225; Campion College 158 & 48-1.

Earlier, Campion College, who took first innings honours, resumed on their overnight score of 132-8 and were dismissed for 158 to set-up a lead of 60 runs.

Overnight batsman Kevon Stewart and Jesse James started proceedings for Campion College, but James (seven) who was fairly new to the crease did not stick around long and was trapped leg-before-wicket by McKenzie in the second over of the day’s play.

Thompson wrapped up the innings 17 runs later when he had Jeheil Smith trapped in front for four. Stewart was left unbeaten on 13.

Atishai Mansingh had earlier compiled a top-score of 35, with support coming from Neil Johnson who struck 34, with Captain Abhijai Mansingh contributing 29. St George’s part-time spinner Kirk McKenzie added another wicket to his overnight tally to end with 5-57 off 24 overs, while Simon Lee had 3-47 and pacer Andrew Thompson 2-30.

With the surface not showing much of a difference from Tuesday’s first day, St George’s College lost their first wicket with eight runs on the board. Wrist-spinner Abhijai Mansingh benefited from appreciable bounce which hit the edge of Gavin Ricketts’ (three) bat and he was comfortably taken in the slip cordon.

But, that was all the success Campion College would have in the early exchanges as Kirk McKenzie and Andrew Thompson, who both benefited from dropped chances, went about building a 78-run second-wicket stand which propelled the North Street-based team back in front.

However, Saad Ahmad had Thompson caught for 36 immediately after the first drink break with the score being 86 for two. Captain Simon Lee joined McKenzie in the middle and the two took St George’s to the lunch break at 121-2 after McKenzie brought up his half century.

The pair added a further 31 runs after the resumption, before the 66-run stand was broken by Mansingh when McKenzie attempted to push the score along and was caught in the cover region for a well-played 76. That sparked a mini-collapse as Lee (26) was run out and Kymani Wilson (zero) was bowled in the same over to leave the score at 158-5.

The Campion bowlers were faced with another dry spell until close to the tea interval as Joel Ewan and Romero Buddo added 52 for the sixth wicket before Mansingh eventually trapped Ewan (27) in front with the score at 210.

The last four wickets then fell for 15 runs after Ahmad removed Daniel White (one), Jamie Walker was run out for a duck and Geordae Seymour (four) and Rohan Butler (one) were both caught off the bowling of Atishai Mansingh.

Abhijai Mansingh finished with 4-68, while Atishai Mansingh took 2-27 and Saad Ahmad 2-49.

In reply, Campion College lost Dominik Samuels for nine to the bowling of Simon Lee.