Tasmania 2 for 187 (Ward 76*, Jewell 53) trail Victoria 7 for 351 dec (Chandrasinghe 119*, Handscomb 95) by 164 runs

Tasmania built a strong reply on day two against Victoria, leaving the Sheffield Shield clash at Blundstone Arena delicately poised at the halfway mark, after Ashley Chandrasinghe completed a century on debut

Opener Tim Ward's unbeaten 76 helped trim the deficit to 164 after Victoria declared early in the middle session on 7 for 351.

The star of the day was Victoria No.3 Chandrasinghe, who compiled a composed, classy unbeaten 107 on debut, showing his powers of concentration as the hundred came up from 311 deliveries.

"To make my debut and get a few runs...great start, I couldn't really ask for anything more," said Chandrasinge, who grew up idolising legendary left-handers Mike Hussey and Kumar Sangakkara, who amassed 57 Test centuries between them.

"They bowled pretty well to me but I was lucky enough to stick at it and a few things went my way. Day one it was seaming around quite a bit and I thought they bowled pretty well. It's obviously flattened out nicely so we've got to bowl well tomorrow and toil hard."

Tasmania's quality seam attack had no answers for the 20-year-old Chandrasinghe, who never looked ruffled and rightly has been spoken about as a future Test star.

He started cautiously on the first day in union with captain Peter Handscomb before working his way through the gears on day two.

Ward and Caleb Jewell looked largely untroubled in putting on 118 for the first wicket either side of tea. It took a moment of batting misjudgement for the visitors to finally strike when Jewell was bowled by Cameron McClure, shouldering arms to a straight in-ducker.

Ward and Jake Doran then added a further 68 for the second wicket before their union ended shortly before stumps when spinner Matt Short got one through Doran's forward defensive gate.

Handscomb scored 95 on the opening day, giving him 518 runs for the season at 172.66 and further pressing his claims for an international recall.