Victoria are sitting comfortably at 1-81 with a 294 run second innings lead at lunch on day three of their twilight Sheffield Shield clash with South Australia at Adelaide Oval.
Rob Quiney fresh of his first innings century already has seven boundaries and is closing in on another half-century on 43 not out and will be joined at the crease by his captain Cameron White after Chris Rogers (32) departed with a ball to spare before lunch.
After bowling out the Redbacks for 224 earlier in the day the Bushrangers chose not to force the follow-on despite the hosts falling well short by 64 runs, electing to bat and build on their first innings total of 437.
Fired up and eager to salvage something from the game, Redbacks fast bowlers Peter George and Joe Mennie took it to the Victorian openers right from the get go.
The duo heaped extensive pressure on Quiney and Rogers with three shouts for LBW in the opening two overs.
However the ice cool Quiney responded to the early assault with a cracking cover drive for four in the second over from a George delivery.
The Redbacks battled back through Mennie who was getting the ball to swing in with considerable ease.
The New South Welshman was proving a handful for the Bushrangers, first having another appeal turned down after he caught Rogers square on the pads before in-swinging a ball that cut sharply under Quiney's bat to just shy wide of the stumps.
But as if on cue, Quiney again had an answer to the Redbacks' pressure dispatching of two short balls for four in the eighth over.
Quiney continued in great nick with another two boundaries as the Bushrangers reached their 50 in 49 minutes.
Rogers also found the short Adelaide Oval boundary to his liking with four boundaries either side of the 13th and 14th overs.
However runs began to dry up as the Bushrangers strode into lunch with Rogers dismissed a ball before the break when he cut hard at a short Tom Cooper delivery to edge the ball to Redbacks batsman James Smith at first slip.
Cooper (1-6 from two overs) and Mennie (0-9 from six including two maidens) are the pick of the Redbacks bowlers.
Earlier in the day, the Redbacks resumed play at 9-215 with tailenders Cameron Williams (18 not out) and George (8) given the unlikely task of withstanding Victoria's bowlers.
To their credit the duo fought tooth and nail, remaining stubborn at the crease for almost 12 overs – George even finding a boundary at one stage.
But they only delayed the inevitable when off-spinner Jon Holland (3-43 from 16.3 overs) found the edge of George's bat for an easy catch to Alex Keath at mid-off after the towering Redbacks quick failed to slog the orthodox bowler.