Steve O’Keefe has bowled NSW to first-innings points, claiming three wickets as Queensland were dismissed for 306 after tea on day three of the Sheffield Shield clash at the SCG.

Fringe Australian one-day batsman Peter Forrest (97) thwarted his former teammates for 268 balls but fell desperately short of his ninth first-class ton on Sunday.

O’Keefe (3-44) was the best-performed bowler in the middle session on Sunday, grabbing the wickets of James Hopes (56) and Michael Neser (23), before knocking over Forrest’s stumps.

NSW have a 91-run lead following their first innings of 9(dec)-397 but, after losing time on Friday and Saturday to rain, would need a sporting declaration or something extraordinary to fall their way in order to secure an outright victory.

The Blues would’ve needed to back up Doug Bollinger’s fiery spell from Saturday evening in order to put themselves into a position to secure back-to-back outright wins over Queensland, following last week’s 150-run win.

Bollinger attempted to do it all himself, sending down several aggressive spells – but was unable to add to his three overnight wickets.

The fiery left-armer did manage to hit Forrest with one particularly nasty bouncer, but the 28-year-old remained solid – though he did call for a replacement helmet.

But Forrest’s stoic innings put paid to that.

He added 48 with Chris Lynn (28), 50 with Chris Hartley (28) and 87 with captain Hopes.

Forrest and Lynn looked in fine touch early on Sunday, and it took something special to break them up.

Lynn slashed at a wide ball from Trent Copeland (1-61) and four runs seemed the likely option before Kurtis Patterson snared a stunning one-handed catch in the gully.

Nathan Hauritz added 33 valuable lower order runs, but his innings was ended when Doug Bollinger (3-65) took a solid outfield catch off Moises Henriques’ bowling.