County Championship: Notts checked by late wickets after dominating Worcestershire
- Published
Chris Nash and Samit Patel added 146 for Notts' second wicket
Specsavers County Championship Division One, Trent Bridge (day one): |
Nottinghamshire 336-5: Nash 139, Libby 88, Patel 76; Magoffin 3-56 |
Worcestershire: Yet to bat |
Notts 3 pts, Worcestershire 1 pt |
Nottinghamshire's batsmen prospered under sunny skies at Trent Bridge but late wickets saw them end day one against Worcestershire on 336-5.
Chris Nash led the way for the hosts with 139, his first Championship hundred for Notts since joining from Sussex at the end of last season.
The visitors were made to rue their decision to bowl first as openers Jake Libby (88) and Nash added 164 together.
However, Steve Magoffin's late burst gave the persistent Pears some hope.
The veteran Australian seamer (3-56) took three wickets in five deliveries, removing Samit Patel (76) and Billy Root in successive balls before forcing Ross Taylor to edge to slip.
Those three dismissals to the second new ball took the gloss off what had looked to be a dominant first day for Notts, who began the day-night match 13 points behind Division One leaders Surrey.
Worcestershire struggled without their two leading wicket-takers in the Championship this season - injured captain Joe Leach and youngster Ed Barnard, who has been called up by England Lions.
Two days after completing their first Championship win of the season against Lancashire, the division's bottom county toiled on a good batting wicket and needed the part-time off-spin of New Zealand's Martin Guptill to finally end Notts' second-wicket stand of 146 between Nash and Patel.
Nottinghamshire opener Chris Nash:
"It's been a really hard start but everyone has been great to me and kept my confidence up. To come in and play like that, I'm delighted.
"I thought there would be a toss because it looked a good wicket and generally here it goes more up and down as the game goes on.
"If we had won the toss we would have definitely batted, so I was pleasantly surprised when they chose to bowl."
Worcestershire bowling coach Alan Richardson:
"The character and the resilience that the lads have shown has been amazing. They probably got their rewards for that later on in the day.
"We probably weren't quite at our best with the ball to start off with. We thought the wicket would do a little bit but it ended up doing very little.
"The Notts guys batted very well but we got our rewards for sticking in there, but some of the language from the bowlers about the ball was quite colourful. It didn't do as much as we thought it would do."