Slow scoring, slow over rates, slow progress. Painful, in fact. Yet far from a slow death. As a contest, the Pura Cup Final between Victoria and Queensland somehow roared back into life on a laboured third day here at the 'Gabba ground in Brisbane.

It was Victorian opener Matthew Elliott (88*) who lay at the core of the day's events. In a display laced with character and unstinting application, he batted through the entirety of the proceedings to lead his side into a genuinely competitive position at stumps. By the close, the Bushrangers had crawled their way to a second innings score of 4/172, and an overall lead of 106 runs, with two days still remaining in the 2000-01 season decider.

On another hot day in Brisbane, some of the headlines were also stolen by Matthew Mott (19), whose 141-ball stay at the wicket seemed not only to provoke frustration throughout a crowd of 4708 but also caused tempers to boil among some of the Bulls in the field.

Changes to the playing conditions under which domestic first-class finals in Australia are conducted have been mooted regularly over recent seasons. Neutral venues, the inclusion of the competing states' international representatives, greater haste in over rates, and amendments to the rule that ensures that one side can draw the match and still win the title, have all been raised as topics for discussion. Maybe after this match, there might be a move to abandon the first two sessions of each day altogether.

Through close to six-and-a-half hours, just 170 runs were accumulated and only four wickets fell. Save for the generous contribution of thirty-seven runs that was offered to the Bushrangers from seven overs of innocuous spin bowling from rival captain Stuart Law, the day was devoid of an uplifting tempo.

In a stadium already holding only around one-eighth of its capacity, it did nothing to impress the audience. Between slow handclaps, ironical cheering for runs and serial chants of 'boring', they found little by which to be impressed. It was only during the last two hours of the day - against the backdrop of the comparatively giddy clatter of three wickets and the addition of a monstrous seventy-nine runs - that they had motive to awake from their slumber.

Potentially, this had all the makings of one of the most exciting days of domestic cricket in a long time. Instead, it turned into one of the most defensive. With time on their side, the Victorians assiduously built a foundation from which they can mount a concerted push for victory; requiring only so much as a draw to retain its title, Queensland sought to spoil and frustrate their ambitions.

In some ways, the opening two sessions of the day's play almost defied description. For there was virtually no action. The Bulls set defensive fields, stationing at least six men on the off side for the vast majority of those four hours and their bowlers then maintained a consistent line outside off stump. Law infamously drew the ire of Tasmania in Queensland's first home game of the first-class season when he used similar tactics; now much the same strategy was applied in the last.

Under a baking Brisbane sun, and at the end of a long and dry Australian summer, the home team's suffocating hold over the run rate resembled Chinese water torture.

"It was another tough day, wasn't it?" mused Bushrangers' captain, Paul Reiffel.

"This is hard cricket. This is 'finals cricket'. We're just fighting our way back into this game after the first day. We've still got some work to do tomorrow but we've slowly crawled our way back into it."

The visiting skipper certainly wasn't overstating the case about the speed of his team's advance toward its position of near-parity. Mott, in particular, was the model of eternal vigilance.

Yet, as they meandered toward a half-century partnership in the small matter of 160 minutes, an uncharacteristically grafting Elliott was not far behind his partner in a contest which could never have been described as a race.

Former Test batsman Elliott is a player of vast experience, of sound temperament, and of classical strokes. But he could hardly at any time in his career have played an innings as determined or as responsible as this one - one that has already spanned 372 minutes and soaked up 273 deliveries of lionhearted Queensland bowling. He weathered a serious blow on the point of the right cheekbone from a Joe Dawes (1/35) beam ball early in the morning, and was not allowed to feel completely immune as Adam Dale (2/43) and Andy Bichel (1/20) sought to offer verbal advice to a number of his partners much later in the day. In the end, though, he meted out far more punishment than he received.

Alongside a watchful Jonathan Moss (5*), the left hander's durability was especially crucial late in the day once Mott had played around the line of a superb seaming delivery from an emotionally unrestrained Dale; Brad Hodge (3) had fallen to a magnificent catch at a wide third slip from Clinton Perren as he drove uppishly at Bichel; and Michael Klinger (9) had padded up to a delivery from Dawes that cut sharply back in at him.

By this stage, the pitch was no longer proving quite as dormant as it had done previously; indeed, for the first time in the match, fleeting signs of variable bounce were gradually appearing. It was a development which must have added to the Victorians' sense of satisfaction by the end of the day. Painstaking though their progress has been, the visitors are now firmly back in this contest.

© 2001 CricInfo Ltd