Play is set to resume after a rain delay on Saturday’s third day of the Sheffield Shield match between Tasmania and Victoria at Bellerive.
The covers have been down for more than three hours after steady rain hit Hobart before the scheduled lunch break.
The home side will resume at 0-7 in their second innings, a lead of 18 after the Tigers bowled Victoria out for 358.
That delivered first-innings points to Tasmania and, with NSW beating South Australia to go top of the table and Western Australia taking first-innings points over Queensland, that leaves Victoria needing an outright victory to ensure they play in next week’s final.
Tasmania need an outright win to be a chance of playing in the decider.
A three-hour final session has been scheduled from 4-7pm (AEDT) on day three with 48 overs to be bowled.
David Hussey cracked 112 in the Bushrangers’ first dig of 358, the total falling 11 short of the home side’s 6(dec)-369.
The 35-year-old batted with the tail to help his side from 7-264 overnight to within sight of first-innings points.
He cracked two sixes and 12 fours before he was last man out, caught behind attempting to hit out.
Hussey and Jayde Herrick defied the new ball to put on 66, Herrick’s eight coming from a painstaking 72 deliveries.
He was eventually out when he nicked Evan Gulbis to Ricky Ponting at second slip with the score at 8-321.
Fawad Ahmed chimed in with 14 before he skied one to Jordan Silk at 9-343.
Hussey reached his 42nd first-class ton when he cut Ben Hilfenhaus to the boundary but became Gulbis’s fifth victim soon after.
The unheralded medium pacer finished with career-best figures of 5-99.