The road to redemption may be long but dumped Australian batsman Shaun Marsh took a positive first step in the Sheffield Shield clash at the Gabba on Tuesday.

Western Australia’s Marsh, 28, looked to have reversed his fortunes after Queensland gave him a life on 34 but his luck ran out on 79.

His hand helped Western Australia reach 4-250 when bad light ended play late on day two – just two runs shy of claiming first innings points against Queensland.

Marsh was desperate to find form ahead of the upcoming tour of the West Indies after being relegated to Shield cricket following four ducks in his past seven innings for Australia.

And his run of outs looked set to continue when he was beaten first ball by Luke Feldman (2-41) before surviving a confident LBW shout by another out to prove a point – Ben Cutting.

Then came the big break – he was dropped at short-leg by Wade Townsend off leg-spinner Cameron Boyce just before tea.

Marsh played within himself at first but drove and cut impressively to hit 13 fours in his three hour knock.

Marsh was finally undone when he looked to play Alister McDermott (1-39) on the leg-side, only to provide a leading edge to Boyce at gully.

First ball of the next over WA captain Marcus North (35) was spectacularly caught down the leg-side by keeper Chris Hartley off Michael Neser (1-55).

Marsh enjoyed a 56-run stand with North after piling on 99 for the second wicket with opener Liam Davis (68) before Queensland tried to hit back.

Cutting is also hoping to revive hopes of an Australian call-up after returning from a side strain suffered in December following a 12th man stint in the first Test against New Zealand.

Cutting’s day was not as fruitful as Marsh’s – but not for a lack of effort.

He hit Marsh in the shoulder and North in the head but finished with 0-56 by stumps.

Earlier, Chris Lynn’s 80 helped Queensland move their overnight score of 7-212 to 251 all out.

Nathan Rimmington (3-63), Nathan Coulter-Nile (4-66) and Mitchell Marsh (2-25 off 17 overs) impressed for WA.

The Bulls are on top of the Shield ladder with 30 points and can take another confident stride toward booking a final spot with success against second-placed WA (20 points).