NSW were all start and no finish as their Sheffield Shield match against Queensland finished day two evenly poised.
The Blues's top five batsmen all scored 20 runs or more but no one could go on with the job, leaving them 7-269 in reply to Queensland's 298.
Mitch Swepson was the outstanding Bulls bowler at Adelaide's Karen Rolton Oval, taking 4-92.
The Blues rot started after a solid opening stand of 67 when Nick Larkin was dismissed lbw to Jack Wildermuth (1-26) for 24, a steady flow of wickets falling thereafter.
Daniel Hughes (43), Kurtis Patterson (23) and Moises Henriques (23) all contributed but it was left to paceman Sean Abbott (66) to break through for the first half century of the day.
His breezy knock featured eight fours and three sixes in just 77 balls, the cornerstone of a 105-run partnership with wicketkeeper Peter Nevill, who remained not out on 54.
"It was probably a little bit disappointing in the sense that we got a lot of starts through the order," Nevill said of the Blues' batting.
"But having said that, it's been a bit of a grind - they bowled well.
"Sean Abbott was outstanding. He's come along in leaps and bounds in the last few years.
"I'm really impressed with what he has done with his batting, he's turning himself into a very hard-hitting allrounder."
Blues No.5 Daniel Solway was struck on the helmet ducking into a Mark Steketee ball.
But he recovered quickly, replacing his helmet and continuing to bat before Steketee picked up his man for 23.
Earlier on Saturday, Mitchell Starc mopped up the Queensland tail, adding another two wickets to his first-day haul to finish with the handy figures of 4-76 from 24 overs.
It had been his first multi-day match since January.
Trent Copeland, Sean Abbott and Harry Conway all finished with two wickets apiece as the Bulls added 24 more runs to their overnight total of 7-274.
Australian Associated Press
