Struggling at 3-15 early on day two at Karen Rolton Oval, McDermott (90) and Wakim (83) wrested back the advantage for the Tigers in their reply to SA's 195.

At stumps, the visitors were 5-311, an overall lead of 116.

Jake Doran (82) and Australian captain Tim Paine (22) were the not out batsmen.

After losing two quick wickets to start their innings late on Monday, the visitors began day two in the worst possible fashion.

Nightwatchman Nathan Ellis (1) was caught sharply by Brad Davis at second slip from the bowling of the miserly Chadd Sayers (3-21, 24 overs) to leave Tasmania reeling.

But Wakim and McDermott dug in to stem the flow of wickets before opening up their shoulders in the periods before and after lunch.

Wakim was eventually out, pushing at a length ball from Sayers and caught at first slip by Callum Ferguson.

"They bowled quite straight and tight to us early and we knew we weren't going to get a lot of scoring opportunities so we just had to be disciplined in the morning," Wakim said.

"Then me and Benny got a partnership going and we just tried to stick to our plans."

McDermott will be kicking himself for not reaching his second first-class century, untroubled throughout much of the afternoon before pulling Kane Richardson (2-55) straight to Lloyd Pope at square leg.

Doran picked up where McDermott left off however, finding the boundary 14 times in a nicely paced innings.

Speaking post-play, Sayers defended Pope who finished the day with the unflattering figures of 0-129 off 27 overs.

"Obviously legspin is a tough art to conquer and he is only 20 years old," Sayers said.

"You've got to stick with him. There's not many good spinners around so when you get one like Lloyd, you've got to put the time into him.

"You're going to have the odd off day so as a team we have to cop that."

Australian Associated Press