Victorian captain David Hussey says his side might have experienced a brief Twenty20 hangover after temporarily letting South Australia off the hook in its Sheffield Shield clash at Adelaide Oval.
The Bushrangers motored along at 4.37 per over in its mammoth score of 9-643 on Sunday and were out for quick wickets when the Redbacks began their second innings 351 behind.
Instead the home side rallied with captain Daniel Harris and James Smith relieving some pressure with a busy 64-run opening stand.
While South Australia reached 2-120 at stumps, Victoria is still a hot favourite to claim an outright victory with a day to play. But Hussey was still disappointed with his side's initial effort in the field and believes some of the players are still in adjustment mode after the recent T20 Champions League.
"I think with the new ball I don't think we bowled particularly well, I think we were really attacking and trying to go for wickets which is probably good but not in the team rules, therefore South Australia got off to a bit of a flier and they are playing pretty good cricket up the front," he said.
"So we've really got to drag them back in the middle, I thought (John) Hastings and (Andrew) McDonald did that beautifully today."
Hussey is optimistic his bowlers can claim the final eight wickets on the batsmen-friendly track.
"We are toiling hard and we've got a bit of a lead so hopefully we can knock over South Australia by tea time tomorrow," he said.
"It's going to be very, very tough work, the wicket hasn't given a lot of assistance to any of the bowlers so we'll just see how we go tomorrow morning."
Meanwhile Harris, who is unbeaten on 49, said he was pleased his team had offered greater resistance on Sunday.
"It was good to fight back a bit after a pretty horrible day two and we can see now how we can save the game, it's before us, we know what we have to do and we've got plans on how to get there," he said.
"It's a cliché but it's one ball at time isn't it, we don't won't to look too far ahead and just get up for the contest and have some real pride about what we are doing so we can try and save this game."
"We'll have to work really hard, they are a good bowling side and it's going to be hard work out there tomorrow but we expect to get the job done."
Mark Cosgrove took to the field but is still troubled by a tight hamstring. Harris said he'll more than likely bat with a runner if he is required on the final day.