Notts v Essex in balance heading into last day

Notts opener Haseeb Hameed led the way in their second innings with 92

Rothesay County Championship Division One, Trent Bridge (day three)

Nottinghamshire 347: Verreynne 128* & 233-5: Hameed 92; Harmer 2-51

Essex 367: Cox 82, Walter 76; Hutton 3-61

Notts (5 pts) lead Essex (6 pts) by 213 runs

Match scorecard

With Essex surrendering their five remaining wickets for 66 runs in the day's opening 90 minutes to claim a bare 20-run first-innings lead, Nottingamshire threatened to take hold of their County Championship Division One match at Trent Bridge.

But after Ben Slater, who made 67, and skipper Haseeb Hameed (92) had posted a rapid 113 for the first wicket the home side were pegged back in the final session as Hameed fell 25 minutes from the close and Kyle Verreynne then came and went for three.

Hameed's side carry an advantage into Monday of 213 with five men gone but it is hard to see how a declaration can come before lunch is reached, even assuming they get there intact. This intriguing game, however, has repeatedly refused to follow either of these side's very best laid plans.

Having weathered seven probing overs from Jamie Porter and Sam Cook before lunch as sunshine replaced cloud, the Notts openers picked up the tempo in the afternoon, claiming the initiative in finding four an over until over-ambition did for Slater, 10 overs from tea.

The left-hander had belted a brace of sixes, hitting against the spin, before Simon Harmer had completed his first five overs but the off-spinner, gaining turn out of the rough, smiled last when Slater bottom-edged a cut into his wicket. His 67 included 56 in boundaries.

Harmer soon made it two wickets in eight balls when Freddie McCann, another left-hander, edged low to first slip and went without score. But Hameed, surviving a close lbw call against Harmer, reached a polished fifty from 96 balls and at the interval his side were 142-2.

Eight balls into the last session, however, another had gone when Porter, summoned for a second spell, immediately produced a beauty that left Joe Clarke off the pitch and had him caught behind for 19. Porter's next ball also found the edge but the new batsman Jack Haynes, destined for an unbeaten 49 at the close, could breathe easy when it fell millimeters short of second slip.

Though just 15 came from 10 overs, the fourth-wicket pair saw out Porter's fine burst and accelerated against Shane Snater and also against Matt Critchley's leg spin when he relieved Harmer for three overs of what proved a 27-over stint from before tea.

The stand had swelled to 83 when Hameed, attempting a late dab, played Noah Thain on to his stumps and, two overs later, a recalled Cook sent Verreynne's county batting average plummetting from 379.0 to 189.5 when he edged to the wicketkeeper for three.

It remains to be seen whether Notts can reach a declaration and, more to the point, how generous they feel they can be. They are pursuing the perfect start of wins in both opening games of the campaign and would ideally hope to set a target.

If rapid runs will be the hope first thing they were a rarity earlier as Sunday started with frantic action. Cloud cover and a freshened pitch helped bring venom to a new ball only six overs old from Saturday's play. Essex innocently added thirteen to their overnight 301-5, but - in as many balls – then suddenly lost three batters.

Fergus O'Neill had Critchley twitching at one that left him and caught behind for 52 before removing Thain lbw for 33, a Championship best in his nascent career. In between Dillon Pennington's lift did for Harmer, taken at second slip without score.

Lusty blows carried Snater to twelve and Cook to 26 from 38 balls but both perished swinging in three overs from Brett Hutton who finished with three for 61 as Essex ended on 367, with a slender lead but six bonus point to the home side's five.

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