South Australian seamer Chadd Sayers is on track for a Sheffield Shield record or two but it still may not be enough to help South Australia into next month's final unless the Redbacks' batsman can suddenly find form.
Day two of South Australia's match against Queensland at Adelaide Oval seemed to have a certain air of familiarity about it - Sayers bowling imperiously while his teammates failed to put runs of the board.
Queensland ended the day 152 runs clear at 4-90, with only Sayers keeping the Redbacks in the contest after returning impressive figures of 3-17 from 15 overs of what was at-times near unplayable bowling.
Earlier in the day, South Australia collapsed for the third home match in a row to be all out for 156 to concede a 62-run first-innings deficit.
The Redbacks lost 4-5 at one stage with middle-order batsman Jake Lehmann (59) the lone shining light.
Young Queensland medium-pacer Jack Wildermuth also made the most of some bowler-friendly conditions to earn 5-40.
It is a match third-placed SA can ill-afford to lose with NSW, Queensland and Western Australia all battling for a spot in the final behind competition leaders Victoria.
"The game is in the balance at the moment, (so) we need to be on our game in the morning and have everything go right but I'm sure we can do it," Sayers said.
"I think if we bowl enough good balls, there is enough in the wicket and enough swing to do so (bowl Queensland out cheaply)."
Sayers now has 50 wickets for the Shield season, and with two more matches to come - three if they make the final - he is in sight of Shaun Tait's SA record (65), and even Colin Miller's all-time Shield record (67).
"It's obviously a fantastic milestone for myself but we don't play cricket for milestones," Sayers said.
"It is always nice to have a good year and it has been the best I have felt in my whole career.
"To get the rewards with bags of wickets throughout the year has been great, and hopefully I can add to them in the next couple of games."
Sayers said the English Dukes ball has almost been as challenging for the bowlers as it has been for the batsman.
"It was swinging a fair bit at times so it was hard to actually make the batsman play because it was swinging too much," he said.
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