New South Wales needs just 36 runs for a convincing outright Sheffield Shield win over Western Australia after finishing off the Warriors' second innings early on day three at the WACA.
The Blues are 1-67 in their second innings chasing down 103 for their first victory of the Sheffield Shield season. Phillip Hughes fell early for a first ball duck when Brad Knowles had him caught at slip by Shaun Marsh, but since then Phil Jaques (33) and Usman Khawaja (32) guided the Blues into control.
Jaques took 28 balls to get off the mark and it was slow going for Khawaja early on as well, but both have now hit seven boundaries each to enjoy lunch before polishing off the last 36 runs.
The Warriors began the day at 7-231 with a lead of 88, but that soon became 9-231 when Stuart Clark had Steve Magoffin caught behind for three and Doug Bollinger had Justin Coetzee caught at slip for 15.
Tail-enders Knowles and Michael Hogan did what they could and managed to get WA to a lead of over 100, but that effort was ended when Hogan ducked into a ball from Bollinger that wasn't as short as he thought.
It struck him hard on the helmet and he was unable to continue, forcing WA to end its innings at 9-245 and leaving the Blues requiring 103 for victory.
Bollinger backed up his 3-33 in the first innings with 5-68 as he worked up a good head of steam and took full advantage of the bounce in the WACA wicket.
Clark took 1-41 as he looks set to be victorious in his first Shield match as captain, Josh Hazlewood was impressive with 2-52 and Moises Henriques took 1-44.
Once again WA's batting has let it down with just 131 on the opening day an unacceptable score.
Shaun Marsh's 94 in the second dig went some way to answering coach Tom Moody's call for WA's batsmen to stand up, but aside from that knock only his 18-year-old debutant brother Mitch Marsh's unbeaten 59 in the first innings showed any fight with the bat for the Warriors.
Luke Towers is only 21 years of age, but made just four and 12 this match and has scored only 155 in seven innings' this season.
Adam Voges struggled with two and one and was unable to back up his century last week at the MCG in the loss to Victoria, and Theo Doropoulos and Coetzee added little to the batting line-up.
The Blues were able to put some good runs on the board despite the life in the wicket with Hughes, Daniel Smith and Henriques making good half centuries that has put NSW on track for its first four-day win of the season.
Western Australia first innings 131
New South Wales first innings 274
Western Australia second innings
Towers c D. Smith b Bollinger 12
Robinson c Bollinger b Henriques 20
S. Marsh lbw Hazlewood 94
Voges b Hazlewood 1
M. Marsh c S. Smith b Bollinger 17
Doropoulos c D. Smith b Bollinger 4
Ronchi c D. Smith b Bollinger
Coetzee c Hughes b Bollinger 15
Magoffin c D. Smith b Clark 3
Knowles not out 6
Hogan retired hurt 8
Extras: 21 (5b, 1lb, 10nb, 5w)
Total: 245 (9 wickets, 65.4 overs)
FoW: 1-14, 2-41, 3-54, 4-100, 5-106, 6-205, 7-220, 8-231, 9-231
New South Wales:
Bollinger 15.4 - 3 - 68 - 5 (9nb)
Clark 15 - 5 - 41 - 1
Hazlewood 12 - 1 - 52 - 2
Henriques 16 - 5 - 44 - 1 (1nb, 5w)
S. Smith 7 - 0 - 34 - 0
New South Wales second innings
Jaques not out 33
Hughes c S. Marsh b Knowles 0
Khawaja not out 32
Extras: 2 (1lb, 1nb)
Total: 67 (1 wicket, 20 overs)
FoW: 1-0
Western Australia bowling:
Magoffin 7 - 4 - 9 - 0
Knowles 7 - 3 - 19 - 1
Hogan 4 - 1 - 23 - 0
Coetzee 1 - 0 - 10 - 0
Doropoulos 1 - 0 - 5 - 0 (1nb)