Daniel Hughes is on the verge of his maiden first-class century as he steered NSW to 3-164 on the opening day of the day-night Sheffield Shield clash against Western Australia.
The 26-year-old is unbeaten on 99 at the dinner break - two sessions into the match - at the WACA Ground on Sunday.
While his teammates battled against the pink ball and bouncy pitch, Hughes - who recorded his first Shield half-century last week in New Zealand, also against WA - remained patient.
Hughes has faced 199 balls and hit 15 boundaries.
After crawling to 1-85 at lunch, two wickets from two David Moody short deliveries in four overs put NSW on the back foot in the second session.
Kurtis Patterson made his way to a scratchy 47 before he dragged one down on to his stumps.
The Blues' No.3 had already survived two big appeals - for lbw and caught behind - off consecutive Michael Hogan overs and was fortunate that a thick edge off the bowling of Moody flew through a vacant fourth-slip position.
He was then dropped at backward-point by Ashton Agar off the bowling of William Bosisto when he was on 26.
Blues skipper Nic Maddinson edged to wicketkeeper Sam Whiteman for just one.
After the Blues won the toss and elected to bat at the WACA Ground, Nick Larkin - who was a late replacement for opener Ed Cowan - was out lbw to Joel Paris in just the third over.
Cowan failed a fitness test on Sunday more than a week after he was struck on the helmet by Warriors paceman Paris and was forced to retire hurt in their drawn Shield clash in New Zealand.
Share
