The Blues were attempting to chase down 280 in 52 overs, however, wickets fell at regular intervals throughout the afternoon, with batsmen pushing for victory. 

The steady stream of wickets left the Blues constantly behind the eight-ball, unable to get on top of the run chase. 

Blues captain Peter Nevill was the last to fall, out for 53, with his side 36 runs short of the victory. 

“Unfortunately that sort of sums up our season really,” Nevill said. “It’s been a case of getting ourselves in good positions, competitive positions, and just not being able to capitalise on them.

“I think it’s always difficult, you pretty much need everything to go right, for you to chase on a day four wicket at five an over to get close to 300. We laid the platform to do that though, we got off to a very good rate, but unfortunately we lost too many wickets during the day.” 

The loss marks the end to a disappointing season for the Blues, with the side failing to win a game in the second half of the season. With that, the off-season review will get underway. 

“Yeah I think there are lessons to be learned. Now’s the time of year where that all begins, we’ll sort of pore over where we fell down unfortunately, there’s plenty of time to analyse that.”

The run chase came after a see-sawing morning of play. Queensland returned to the field at 3-315 with Charlie Hemphrey just five runs shy of his fourth first-class century. 

It didn’t take long for Hemphrey to record the milestone, but he was unable to do any further damage, out leg before wicket for 101 off the bowling of Harry Conway.

Wickets then fell at fairly regular intervals from that point, with the Bulls losing 6-123 before captain Jimmy Peirson declared 30 minutes into the second session, setting the Blues an achievable target of 280.

Rather than settling for the draw, the Blues opted to bat with an attacking mindset and attempt to chase the total down. 

“We were always going to try and go for the win, if we had have won that, that gets us up to third on the table. That was the message I gave everyone as well, that we’re happy to lose this game trying to win it. Go out there and play with freedom, we didn’t have anything to lose today.”

The chase, however, was off to the worst possible start, with Nick Larkin out lbw on just the second ball of the innings. Kurtis Patterson and Daniel Hughes, however, were able to make a dent in the deficit, combining for 40 runs.

The partnership came to an end when Hughes was bowled for 27 off 23 balls by Nesser. From there, the Blues attempted to manage the high-wire act of playing to win and respecting their wicket to avoid the loss.

Ultimately it was down to Nevill and number 11 Harry Conway, with the pair requiring 54 to win or to survive 61 balls for the draw. In the end, the pair were unable to do so, with Nevill falling with 31 balls left in the day.