Western Australia is 0-52 at stumps on day three of the Sheffield Shield match against New South Wales at the WACA, still needing a further 171 for victory.
Liam Davis is not out 30 and Shaun Marsh 10 as WA tries to chase down the total the Blues set despite Steve Magoffin taking 6-66 to help dismiss them for 310.
Thanks to fighting knocks from captain Dominic Thornely (97), Greg Mail (77), Grant Lambert (32) and Daniel Smith (30), NSW set a more than competitive total and it will be an intriguing final day's play.
Magoffin backed up his 4-36 in the first innings with another terrific display of quick bowling to claim 6-66 in the Blues' second innings. It is the first time WA's leading quick has claimed 10 wickets in a match.
The Blues began the day at 2-62, still 26 behind the Warriors, and things took a turn for the worse when nightwatchman Beau Casson went for two in the second over of the day.
However, Moises Henriques and Mail then combined for a consolidating partnership of 31 before Henriques was trapped in front by Magoffin for 13. Mail and Thornely then combined for 78 before Mail's innings of 77 came to and end when caught in the deep off Marcus North.
Mail's 77 was the highest score of the match at that point and his 213 balls the most faced by any player of the game as the opener battled hard to help the Blues build a lead.
That was until captain Thornely got going and made 97 off 166 balls, with 11 fours and two sixes. He hit two sixes and a four off an over from North to move to 97, before being dropped by Luke Pomersbach off the last ball of that over.
It wasn't to prove as costly as when Brett Dorey dropped him on 16, though, with Thornely edging a ball from Arron Crawford to Adam Voges at first slip in the next over to just fall short of a well-deserved century.
Lambert then added to his 37 and five wickets in the first innings with a crucial 32, Bracken made 12 to go with his 63 in the first innings and keeper Daniel Smith hit 30 to help NSW to a lead of over 200.
NSW was sent into bat by North on the opening day and was subsequently bowled out for 177 with Magoffin taking 4-36. It could have been much worse, though, with only a quick-fire 63 from Bracken helping the Blues avoid a low score after being 8-97 and 9-135.
WA moved to 3-106 at stumps on day one and by tea on the second day were bowled out for 265. Theo Doropoulos was the top scorer on 41 with all Warriors batsmen getting starts but failing to go on with it.
All-rounder Lambert was the star with the ball for the Blues claiming the first five-wicket haul of his career with figures of 5-82, while Bracken also bowled well to claim 2-48 from 30 overs.
New South Wales first innings 177
Western Australia first innings 265
New South Wales second innings
Philip Hughes c Ronchi b Magoffin 0 (4)
Greg Mail c Dorey b North 77 (213)
Peter Forrest c Ronchi b North 35 (90)
Beau Casson c Voges b Magoffin 2 (27)
Moises Henriques lbw Kelly 13 (39)
Dominic Thornely c Voges b Crawford 97 (166)
Steven Smith b Magoffin 0 (11)
Grant Lambert c Ronchi b Magoffin 32 (86)
Daniel Smith c Doropoulos b Magoffin 30 (36)
Nathan Bracken c Davis b Magoffin 12 (14)
Mark Cameron not out 2 (12)
Extras: 10 (7 lb, 1b, 1nb, 1w)
Total: 310 (10 wickets, 116.1 overs)
FoW: 1-0 (Hughes), 2-59 (Forrest), 3-64 (Casson), 4-95 (Henriques), 5-173 (Mail), 6-175 (S Smith), 7-256 (Thornely), 8-276 (Lambert), 9-300 (Bracken), 10-310 (D Smith)
Bowling
Steve Magoffin 26.1 - 9 - 66 - 6
Brett Dorey 26 - 8 - 73 – 0 (1w)
Arron Crawford 20 - 8 - 59 – 1 (1nb)
Trent Kelly 18 - 6 - 46 – 1
Marcus North 23 – 6 – 48 – 2
Adam Voges 3 – 1 – 10 – 0
Western Australia second innings
Liam Davis not out 30 (46)
Shaun Marsh not out 10 (39)
Extras: 12 (6 lb, 5 w, 1 nb)
Total: 52 (0 wickets, 14 overs)
FoW:
Bowling
Nathan Bracken 6 – 2 – 12 - 0
Mark Cameron 5 – 1 – 17 - 0
Grant Lambert 2 – 0 – 12 - 0 (5w, 1nb)
Greg Mail 1 – 0 – 5 - 0