O'Keefe takes five with pink ball

New South Wales spinner Steve O'Keefe believes a change of ball after the pink ball became too worn during South Australia's innings hurt his team in their match at Adelaide Oval. At stumps on day two, the Blues were still in a good position to push for first-innings points at 5 for 230 in reply to South Australia's 288, with Peter Nevill on 51 and Trent Copeland on 1.

However, O'Keefe said a change of ball after 60 overs of the South Australia innings resulted in the ball coming on to the bat better. This is the first time pink balls have been used in first-class cricket in Australia as Cricket Australia looks towards the possibility of hosting a day-night Test in the next couple of years.

"The ball that we came back out with would have been only about 20-to-25 overs old, which changed the perspective of the game," O'Keefe told reporters in Adelaide. "The ball was a lot harder, it came onto the bat a lot nicer. It's certainly an issue that has to be looked at to keep the equality of the game. Other than that, I think it (the ball) has not been as big a factor as people thought it might be, so in that way I guess it's a positive."

O'Keefe collected 5 for 89 as New South Wales dismissed the Redbacks, and Callum Ferguson missed the chance of a century when he was bowled by O'Keefe for 97. In reply, Ryan Carters made 65 and Kurtis Patterson made 81 as the Blues recovered from a slightly shaky start of 3 for 51.