Having watched his team pick up maximum points against New South Wales in Hobart on Thursday, Tasmanian Tigers coach Tim Coyle said things are looking up for the defending Sheffield Shield champions.
The Tigers are now four points behind second-placed Western Australia and look poised to make a charge towards back-to-back finals with three matches remaining in the season.
Having also picked up the points in last Saturday's Ryobi Cup clash against the Blues, Coyle couldn't have been happier with the Tigers' performance in Hobart.
"It was a good win," Coyle said. "We've had a good week. The one-day game was really important and it's often difficult to back up after one-day wins."
"It was all about being alive on day four. We've played some good cricket today."
Jackson Bird and James Faulkner shared eight wickets in rolling NSW for 150 in their second innings, setting up a 147-run victory target on the final afternoon.
Mark Cosgrove clubbed consecutive fours to get the Tigers across the line for the loss of four wickets, but Coyle said it was a first-innings century from George Bailey that had really set-up the outright win.
"We saw an outstanding innings by the captain. I think that was game changing in that he really got the game moving with the bat," Coyle said.
Opening batsmen Ed Cowan and Steve Cazzulino also came in for praise, teaming for a century stand in the first dig before calming any nerves with a 49-run partnership to get the run chase started on Thursday.
"It's always good to settle the change room down when you've got little chases," Coyle said. "We've seen it over the years. It's really good when we've got two players that are consistently getting us away to a good start."
Aside from the long-term absence of Tim Paine and a more recent injury to reserve 'keeper Tom Triffitt, Coyle said the Tigers were largely untroubled by injury and in the right kind of form to finish the season strongly.
"I think we're playing good, consistent cricket," he said. "On the comeback from the Big Bash League and the attitude around training, we've got a few injuries but we've been able t o cope with those and cover them well. I think we're in a really good place."
"We spoke when we came back about momentum and when the Tasmanian cricket team gets momentum it's really hard to stop. We've had the perfect start to the back half of the season (and) I don't think it matters who we play next week, I reckon we've got a good game developing and we're only going to get better from now."