Wade's ton hands Tasmania the advantage

A magnificent 137 from Matthew Wade has given Tasmania a chance to pull off a remarkable come-from-behind win over Victoria at Bellerive Oval in Hobart.

Tasmania began the third day five runs behind Victoria with eight wickets in hand after a 170-run opening stand from Jordan Silk and Alex Doolan had all but erased the 201 first innings deficit.

Silk moved to 90 but he and Jake Doran both fell with the score at 229 with a lead of just 28. Skipper George Bailey was out just three runs later with Peter Siddle nabbing two of the three.

It left Wade and Test skipper Tim Paine to try and build some sort of lead for Tasmania to defend.

Paine was the more fluent of the pair in their vital 73-run stand. Wade was 16 runs off 50 balls at one stage while Paine cruised to 40 off 76 with five boundaries. Paine edged the part-time off-spin of Matthew Short to slip. Gurinder Sandhu fell cheaply but Wade and Jackson Bird found another gear adding 88 for the eighth wicket.

Bird made his maiden first-class half-century in his 100th innings. He also fell to Short with Wade stuck on 87.

Wade farmed the strike to get to 99 before Gabe Bell was trapped infront by Holland to leave Tasmania nine down. But Riley Meredith did not need to face a ball before Wade got to his 13th first-class hundred.

Victoria then had men on the fence to try and entice Wade to hand over the strike early in an over but he controlled the situation expertly and was able to add another 43 runs to the total with Meredith, before becoming Siddle's fourth scalp.

It left Victoria needing 276 to win and a tricky six-over period to negotiate before stumps on day three. Travis Dean and Marcus Harris got through without loss to set up a final day chase.