Tasmania were 0-36 at lunch on day four chasing 147 for an outright victory over NSW in the Sheffield Shield match at Bellerive.

Test opener Ed Cowan was unbeaten on 21 with Steven Cazzulino on 10 after the Tigers reduced a Blues batting line-up missing Simon Katich to 9-150 in the first session.

Katich suffered bad bruising when he was struck in the face on day one and was unable to bat in NSW’s second innings.

Tasmania had 75 more overs to reach the modest target on a wicket still playing well.

Resuming at 4-75 and hoping to set Tasmania a target of at least 200, the Blues got off to a poor start on Thursday when wicketkeeper Peter Nevill pulled a ball from left-arm quick James Faulkner (4-52) straight to Brendan Drew at midwicket on 10.

Faulkner received plenty of support from the other end, where Jackson Bird (4-51) found himself on a hat-trick when he removed Scott Coyte lbw for 17 and then bowled Sean Abbott for a fist ball duck.

Bird then removed Blues captain Stephen O’Keefe, caught at slip by Mark Cosgrove for 35, and it was 8-146 before Trent Copeland was last man out for 17, caught by Cosgrove off Brendan Drew.

Struggling former Test opener Phil Hughes top-scored in the Blues’ second innings with 36.

Both sides are desperate for points to make up ground on top two Queensland and Western Australia, who were doing battle at the Gabba.

That, and a rain-marred day two, had led to NSW declaring their first innings at 7-341 and the Tigers following suit as soon as they had notched first inning points at 7-345.

Faulkner had ripped through the NSW top order on Wednesday evening, claiming Usman Khawaja (14), Steven Smith (seven) and Ben Rohrer (11).

It then emerged that more overs would have been possible earlier in the day if the umpires had not erred in adding time for the rain delays to the end of Wednesday’s play.

In twilight matches, time should be added to the earlier sessions and the umpires’ error meant half an hour’s play was lost due to bad light.