Tasmanian Tigers opening batsman Ed Cowan continued his outstanding summer with a gritty half-century that led his side to first innings points against Queensland in Hobart on Saturday.
Called up to the Test team on the back of a run-laden first half of the Bupa Sheffield Shield season, Cowan has returned to the domestic fold in great form and added a determined first innings 82 to his commanding century in the Ryobi Cup fixture against the Bulls last Wednesday.
"Probably the last three months I've played with a lot of confidence and have played a lot of cricket and when you play a lot of cricket the bricks stack on top of each other a little bit," he said.
"It's nice to be able to transfer one day form into four day cricket and vice versa."
While the Test role has added a new level of scrutiny to his game, Cowan said the added pressure is something he tries to embrace.
"There are probably a few more eyes on you, a bit more expectation, but I'm quite enjoying that," he said.
"Knowing you're the one people are looking at and it's important to keep putting runs on the board, so I'm quite enjoying that pressure."
Despite falling short of a third Shield ton of the season when he mistimed a cover drive from the bowling of Ben Cutting, Cowan's knock was typically watchful, but he was savage on anything wide from the Queensland attack.
"I think it was one of the few scoring options on that wicket. Any width you had to try and get your value because it's so hard to drive on... if there is a little bit of width it provides scoring options."
The Tigers will carry a 16-run lead into the third day's play with Matt Johnston and Luke Butterworth at the crease.
Meanwhile Queensland skipper Chris Hartley feels his side failed to make full use of favourable bowling conditions.
"We put down a couple of chances which never helps at this level," Hartley said.
"You can't give too many first class batsmen a couple of chances in an innings so that slowed us down a bit."
The Bulls dropped Mark Cosgrove on two occasions and saw a number of balls fall just short of the slips in a frustrating day's play on a green wicket and under heavily overcast skies.
Cosgrove went on to make 67 and shared a 95-run partnership with Ed Cowan (82) which sealed the first innings win for the Tigers.
Given the conditions it looked like the perfect day for Queensland's four-man pace attack to take the game to Tasmania, but Hartley admitted his quicks hadn't quite hit their straps on the day.
"Bowling as well, we weren't quite exactly where we wanted to be. We sort of built pressure for four or five balls and rather than close out and bowl maiden after maiden we let them off the hook a little bit," he said.
"If you get enough balls around the top of off stump you're going to nick it and certainly on a wicket where the ball is going to seam around a bit we wanted the batsmen to be committing on the front foot... we just didn't put enough balls there."
The Bulls will be hunting for early wickets on Sunday to minimise the first innings deficit and get back in to bat in order to set the defending Bupa Sheffield Shield champions a challenging chase for the final day.
