Leg-spinner Bryce McGain believes Victoria is poised to claim an invaluable first-innings lead in what's developing into an absorbing Sheffield Shield final against Queensland at the MCG.
At stumps on day two, the Bulls were 6-199, trailing the hosts by 106 runs - their innings held together by a painstaking 80 from opener Ryan Broad.
It was all about survival for the Queenslanders on Thursday as the Bushrangers' pacemen made the most of conditions that favoured seam and swing.
McGain said the Vics are looking forward to wrapping up the tail as early as possible on Friday.
"It's a new-ball wicket and our opening bowlers will be nice and fresh," said McGain.
"New ball straight up in the morning - we'll be going as hard as we can with a big push by all the guys to get those last four wickets."
McGain said the Victorian quicks - Damien Wright, Darren Pattinson, John Hastings and Andrew McDonald - deserved a much better return than the four wickets they were able claim between them on Thursday.
Time and time again they beat the bat with deliveries too good to nick.
"We bowled fantastically well - every one of our guys did exactly what we asked of them from the start," he said.
"A lot of them have never bowled as well as that and unfortunately we just didn't get the rewards this time."
"It's frustrating watching the ball nip past the bat ... but we'll keep doing that until the last wicket is taken."
McGain said he was delighted to pick up the key wicket of Bushrangers nemesis Broad, who was beaten in flight and yorked just 20 minutes before stumps.
"He was hard to move and he was really disciplined and, credit to him, he did bat very, very well," said McGain.
"We were really happy to get that wicket and we were just looking for one little error for the whole day and it happened right at the end, so we were grateful for that."
First-innings lead or not, McGain believes the result is still in the balance.
"It's been a tough contest since the first ball and we've fought back hard to get 300 runs which is very important for what we needed to do, and we're fighting just as hard with the ball," he said.