George Bailey of old stars with bat as Tasmania Tigers take on Queensland Bulls in Sheffield Shield

A twenty-fourth first-class century beckons George Bailey this morning as the former Tasmanian skipper drove his side into a position of power against defending Sheffield Shield premier Queensland.

George Bailey, of the Tigers, on day 2 of the Sheffield Shield match between Tasmania and Queensland at Blundstone Arena. Picture: AAP Image/Rob Blakers

A twenty-fourth first-class century beckons George Bailey this morning as the former Tasmanian skipper drove his side into a position of power against defending Sheffield Shield premier Queensland.

Bailey — who relinquished the captaincy duties a little more than a week ago to focus on turning his batting struggles around — has flourished in his new-found freedom and will resume on day 3 at Blundstone Arena needing just a solitary boundary to reach his milestone.

The 36-year-old began to look like the Bailey of old after scoring 63 in the second innings last week against South Australia, and yesterday produced his most free-flowing knock of the year as the Tigers reached 4-240 at stumps.

Matthew Wade, the man who assumed the leadership duties, is 40 not out, and the experienced pair will look to bat the Bulls out of the contest with the hosts already armed with a 300-run lead.

After 18 wickets tumbled on day 1, just six fell on the second as batting conditions turned more favourable, with Tasmania picking off the last two Queensland tailenders to wrap up proceedings in the seventh over of the morning.

Alex Doolan (eight) failed to reach double figures for the fifth time in six innings at home, and Ben McDermott was unluckily run out at the non-strikers end after a deflection off Jack Wildermuth’s hand, before Jake Doran (26) failed to capitalise on one of his few promising starts for the season when he was bowled around his legs by Wildermuth.

At 3-71, the game was delicately poised as Jordan Silk (54) was joined by Bailey and, after the duo slowly turned the screws, it was the latter and Wade who drove home the advantage by adding 125 runs in the final session as scoring became much easier.

“It is a nice position after yesterday, we spoke about our batting performance in that first innings and we weren’t quite happy with how we played,” Silk said.

“It was a really good response to that, obviously the wicket is probably flattening out a little bit but really nice day, to have a 300-run lead is an absolute bonus.”

With so much time still left in the match, Tasmania could look to push a target to 450 and beyond, but will need to navigate an initial burst this morning with the second new ball only seven overs old.

“I would imagine we would be looking for just the same old tomorrow, that’s the good thing about the game moving so quickly, we have so much time on our hands to set up a really big score,” Silk said.