County Championship: Rossington and Willey boost Northants

Adam Rossington is on loan to Northants from Middlesex

Adam Rossington made a superb century, and equalled the best score of his career, as Northants had arguably the better of day one against Notts.

The wicketkeeper, on loan from Middlesex, matched his 103 not out against Cambridge University in 2013, as the hosts were all out for 260.

James Middlebrook (32) and captain Kyle Coetzer (30) were the only team-mates to offer support to Rossington.

But David Willey then took 3-9 to reduce Notts to 38-4 at the close.

The left-arm paceman dismissed openers Steven Mullaney and Alex Hales to leave the visitors on 7-2 and also removed Samit Patel before bad light brought play to a close.

His performance, combined with that of Rossington, who was bowled by Ajaml Shazad after hitting two sixes - the second of which took him to his century - and 13 fours, gave Northants early hope they that may finally record their first win of what has been a miserable season in the four-day game.

They also gave a debut to New Zealand Test seamer Neil Wagner but lie bottom of the table with nine defeats from 11 matches, while Notts are second - just five points behind leaders Yorkshire.

Northants batsman Adam Rossington:

"I felt alright out there. They bowled well up front and it was a case of trying to occupy the crease at the time and then I tried to put them under pressure towards the back end of the innings.

"I feel like I'm in a bit of form right now, so it's all about working hard and I've just tried to transfer that across the different formats.

"David Willey was getting it through really well there at the end and it was good to get those four wickets and put them under a bit of pressure."

Nottinghamshire director of cricket Mick Newell said:

"We're on the wrong end of that first day but I thought Northants came out and bowled very well there.

"We've now got to make sure we get as close to Northants first-innings score and see where that takes us.

"Rossington played very well, he controlled the batting with the tail and I think we bowled pretty well for the most part."