THE Tigers are so close to their third Sheffield Shield they can see their breath on it.
It was another day of drama, but also of Tasmanian dominance with Queensland needing a miracle to defend its Shield title.
With two days to go and needing a win to raise the trophy, the Bulls are 7-185, still 234 runs behind in their first innings with just three wickets left after taking 74.4 overs to slowly accumulate their score.
Queensland is still 34 runs off passing the follow on but it would surprise all if the Tigers enforced it, with captain George Bailey almost certain to bat the Bulls out of the game today on a wearing pitch.
While all the specialist bowlers chipped in, it was a man who arrived in Hobart as a batting all-rounder who did the damage.
Evan Gulbis, who survived a horror ordeal in his first season with four consecutive ducks followed by a season ending elbow-reconstruction, is now on track to becoming a Shield winner.
He captured top-scorer Peter Forrest (56) leg before and both Nathan Reardon (13) and Michael Neser (12) caught behind.
"We are in a great position, but with two days to go if we don't play good cricket we can still get beaten so there is still a lot of work to be done," Gulbis said.
Forrest said the visitors' position was dire, but there would be no white flag from the Bulls camp.
"The Queensland spirit is to keep fighting so we will go and have a few XXXXs and try and figure out a way we can still win the game," Forrest said.
"I'm sure you will see us positive and upbeat tomorrow and [we will] come out and try and attack the game and find a way to win."
The Tigers struck fairly early when the finals specialist, Luke Butterworth, beat Luke Pomersbach's defence and rattled off stump, before the Bulls had reason to maul the ground in anger.
Already narky with a grassless pitch, Bulls coach Darren Lehmann was left doubly fuming after the umpires dithered instead of heading for the changerooms early with a storm fast approaching.
The storm hit hard and the deluge had the groundstaff battling wind and rain while struggling to get the covers down.
As a result play was held up for two hours under brilliant sunshine because of a wet pitch and centre square.
The hold-up left Lehmann so angry, he refused to comment on the situation with a $3000 suspended fine hanging over his head for previously venting his spleen publicly.
Gulbis said it was like bowling with a hackie-sack on the slow Blundstone Arena pitch. But despite the lifeless wicket, he now has 20 wickets for the season at 24.5 runs each.
It is a long way from that disastrous runless start to his career.
"I didn't really warrant playing as a batter for a while, it's been well documented how I started my Shield career," Gulbis, 27, said.
"To have a little bit of pressure off the batting and to be able to bowl has been really fantastic for me and scoring a couple of runs here and there and hopefully forcing my way up the order eventually."
Play will resume today at 10.15am.
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