Hughes' gritty half-century bolsters New South Wales

A critical unbeaten half-century from Daniel Hughes gave New South Wales a chance to put up a challenging fourth-innings total after giving up a first-innings lead to Queensland at the Gabba.

The Blues began their second innings on day two 35 runs behind Queensland after the Bulls' tail wagged courtesy of Jimmy Peirson and Mark Steketee.

Hughes lost his opening partner Nick Larkin in the third over of the innings, with only five runs of the lead erased, when Michael Neser made the breakthrough having Larkin caught behind.

Hughes was joined by Kurtis Patterson and the pair chipped away at the lead and put the Blues in front with a 48-run stand before Luke Feldman struck.

After five wickets in the first innings, including finding the outside edge of Patterson, Feldman nipped one back off the seam from around the wicket to find Patterson's inside edge and Peirson took an excellent catch to his right.

Hughes pressed on to his 13th half-century in Sheffield Shield cricket from 137 balls. He played with the patience required in conditions that continued to swing and seam. Moises Henriques was fine support, finishing 23 not out from 60 balls to leave the Blues 68 runs in front with eight wickets in hand.

Earlier, Peirson and Steketee both made 41 as the Bulls climbed out of a hole at 7 for 104 to establish a lead. The pair added 50 for the eighth wicket before the breakthrough came via the unlikely source of batsman Jack Edwards as he had Peirson caught behind for his first wicket in first-class cricket.

Steketee swung hard and found the boundary five times in his unbeaten 41, his equal second-highest score in Shield cricket. He added 30 with No. 10 Feldman before Sean Abbott and Trent Copeland finished the innings with wickets in consecutive overs to bag three scalps apiece.