Teenage leg-spinner Cameron White and veteran captain Paul Reiffel fell short of personal milestones but did enough to set Victoria up for its first victory of the Pura Cup cricket season here today.

The heroics of White (91) and Reiffel (75) against South Australia helped the Bushrangers reach 405 and snare first innings points - their first of the domestic season.

At stumps on day two, South Australia was 2-74 in its second innings, still trailing by 102 runs overall.

South Australia was still hopeful of saving the match with dangerman Greg Blewett not out 23 and skipper Darren Lehmann still to bat.

At one stage the Bushrangers were 6-198 but Reiffel and White destroyed the visitors' attack with some power hitting as the Vics' last four wickets put on 207 runs.

White, controversially preferred to former Test off-spinner Colin Miller for the past two matches, looked set to become the youngest player ever to score a century for Victoria in the competition formerly known as the Sheffield Shield but holed out on 91.

At 18 years and 118 days the boy from Bairnsdale in eastern Victoria was in line to break the previous record of Les Joslin, who was 18 years and 341 days old when he scored a century in 1966-67.

White, who took two wickets in his first over yesterday, not only justified his selection ahead of 37-year-old Miller but also the decision to bat him at No.7 ahead of out-of-form wicketkeeper Darren Berry.

Showing great maturity and tremendous power as he drove and pulled relentlessly, White hit 13 boundaries in his 91 which came off only 130 balls.

Having already scored two centuries in grade cricket, White has emerged as a potential star with both ball and bat and next month will captain the Australian under 19 team to the World Cup in New Zealand.

Reiffel was content to play the supporting role to White in their 86 run eighth wicket stand but dominated a 75 run ninth wicket partnership with fast bowler Mick Lewis, who contributed his highest first-class score of 27 not out.

But just as the 35-year-old Reiffel looked set to finally score his maiden first-class century he was run out by a direct hit from Jeff Vaughan at mid-off.

It was Reiffel's 18th first-class half century in 166 matches and his sixth for Victoria in the Pura Cup.

Despite having also scored almost 1000 Test runs for Australia, Reiffel's highest first-class score remained at 86 - scored 11 years ago for Victoria against Tasmania at the Junction Oval.

© 2001 AAP