South Australia trails Tasmania's first innings total by 169 runs with six wickets in hand at stumps on day two of the Sheffield Shield match at Bellerive Oval, which has featured career-best performances by Tasmanian Ed Cowan (225) and South Australian Peter George (8-84).
The stunning individual efforts of the first day and a half of the match weren't replicated after lunch, although both teams pushed for the upperhand as the battle for first innings points intensified.
Cameron Borgas is currently the senior partner at the crease for South Australia after compiling a watchful 34, while Graham Manou, fresh from his time with the national team, is on seven not out as the Redbacks finished the day at 4-220, chasing Tasmania's 389.
For the Tigers, it was the spin of Jason Krejza (1-72) that provided the key breakthrough of the final session when he had the hard-hitting Mark Cosgrove caught by Brady Jones for 49.
It was a key wicket for the home side as Cosgrove showed from the outset that he had little time for quick singles, hammering 44 runs of his runs in boundaries.
Daniel Harris was the other man out for the Redbacks when he fell leg before to the bowling Tim MacDonald (1-22) for a steady knock of 77.
James Smith (seven) and Michael Klinger (32) were the men out earlier in the day, falling to Brett Geeves (1-38) and James Faulkner (1-31) respectively.
Having fought back from 3-28 in the first session of the game the Tigers were on top at stumps on day one at 5-333 with Cowan unbeaten on 204 but George grabbed the first four wickets to fall on Wednesday to drag the visitors back into the hunt for first-innings points.
Going into the match with best bowling figures of 4-56 in an innings and 6-103 in a match, George continued where he left off on Tuesday to engineer a collapse of 5-44, with the other wickets falling to Jake Haberfield (1-95) and Chris Duval (1-93).
Having moved south in the off-season because he was behind the likes of Phillip Hughes, Phil Jaques and Simon Katich in the queue at New South Wales, Cowan comfortably eclipsed his previous first-class best of 137 by making 225.
But apart from Cowan and former skipper Dan Marsh, who made 90 as the pair added 240 for the fourth wicket, the other batsmen failed to fire with Geeves next best thanks to an unbeaten 18.
Cowan and Faulkner had added 12 to the overnight score before their 74-run union was ended when George dismissed Faulkner for 15 and he followed up by sending Jason Krejza (12), Cowan and Brady Jones (one) on their way before Duval grabbed the final wicket.
Tasmania 1st innings
Wells lbw George 4
Cowan c Haberfield b George 225
Doolan b George 11
Bailey c Manou b George 0
Marsh b George 90
Butterworth c Harris b Haberfield 0
Faulkner c Harris b George 15
Krejza lbw b George 12
Geeves not out 18
Jones lbw b George 1
MacDonald b Duval 2
Extras 11 (3b, 3lb, 5nb)
Total: 389 (all out; 113.5 overs)
FoW: 1-10, 2-28, 3-28, 4-268, 5-271, 6-345, 7-367, 8-368, 9-370, 10-389
Bowling
George 28 - 7 - 84 - 8
Haberfield 22 - 2 - 95 - 1
Duval 26.5 - 5 - 93 - 1 (2nb)
O'Brien 20 - 6 - 60 - 0
Christian 17 - 3 - 51 - 0 (3nb)
South Australia 1st innings
Harris lbw MacDonald 70
Smith b Geeves 7
Klinger lbw b Faulkner 32
Cosgrove c Jones b Krejza 49
Borgas not out 34
Manou not out 7
Extras: 14 (5lb, 9nb)
Total: 220 (four wickets, 76 overs)
FoW: 1-7, 2-87, 3-147, 4-204
Bowling
Geeves 19 - 7 - 38 - 1 (3nb)
Butterworth 16 - 4 - 28 - 0
MacDonald 11 - 3 - 22 - 1 (1nb)
Krejza 20 - 4 - 72 - 1
Faulkner 8 - 2 - 31 - 1
Marsh 1 - 0 - 16 - 0
Wells 1 - 0 - 8 - 0