West Australian skipper Marcus North came to his side's rescue with his second ton of the match to lift the Warriors off the canvas on day three of their Sheffield Shield clash with Victoria at the WACA Ground.
North, who posted a gutsy 103 in WA's first innings of 239, produced a sparkling 141 to inspire the Warriors to 7-290 at stumps, an overall lead of 203 with Steve Magoffin and Brett Dorey to resume on Monday.
Only six players in WA history have notched centuries in both innings of a first class match but North is the first to achieve the feat twice after registering back-to-back tons against South Australia in Perth in 2005/06.
WA were in all sorts of strife at 3-50 in their second innings - still 37 runs in arrears at the time - following the departures of Luke Ronchi (13), Luke Pomersbach (two) and Shaun Marsh (15).
But North, who spent all of Saturday off the field suffering gastro, and Adam Voges (52) combined for a 114-run stand to catapult the home side back into the contest after speedster Damien Wright (5-35) had threatened to take the game away from WA.
North cracked 18 boundaries in his 143-ball ton and joined up with David Bandy (48) for a 119-run partnership to lift WA to 4-283.
But the loss of 3-3 late in the day, which included the wicket of North when the left-hander edged Wright through to second slip, left the game delicately placed heading into the final day.
Victorian Peter Siddle, who was called into Australia's 12-man squad for the second Test against New Zealand in Adelaide, laboured to figures of 0-60 from 14 overs after returning 2-71 in the first innings.
Victoria snared first innings points early on Sunday after a 65-run, ninth wicket stand between Matthew Wade (68) and Siddle (38) lifted the Bushrangers to 326.
In a blow to WA's hopes of achieving victory, Arron Crawford is unlikely to bowl on the decisive final day after the left-arm paceman limped from the field with a suspected torn quad.
"It's always nice to get your name on the honour board but to get it twice is special," North said.
"When you play 10 years of cricket that experience has got to show for something and this year it's been really rewarding to get some tough runs, especially as captain.
"That (century) was a pretty special one but it would be extra special if something could come out of this game tomorrow and we could push for six points.
"I think it's pretty balanced.
"I would have liked to have a few more wickets in hand . . . but with 200 we are certainly in the game, especially on this wicket.
"It's still got plenty of grass and it's suited to a new ball at the moment."