McCann hits ton as Notts & Bears edge nearer safety

Freddie McCann has already hit two hundreds and a half-century in his seven first-class innings

Vitality County Championship Division One, Trent Bridge (day two)

Nottinghamshire 324-6 (82.4 overs): McCann 130, Verreyne 76*

Warwickshire: Yet to bat

Notts 2 pts, Warwickshire 2 pts

Match scorecard

Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire both edged a little nearer County Championship Division One safety as they each earned two bonus points to push Lancashire closer to the drop on another rain-hit day at Trent Bridge.

Having resumed on 33-2 after only 15.2 overs were possible on day one, teenager Freddie McCann hit his second century in less than a month as Notts recovered to reach 324-6 at the close.

Six different Warwickshire bowlers have so far claimed a wicket.

Only needing five points from this game to secure safety, the Bears earned two of them by taking four more wickets - including Olly Hannon-Dalby's 49th of the season, as the seamer chases 50 for a third straight summer.

Notts began this round of fixtures five points behind Warwickshire and 15 ahead of Lancashire - but they now know that the eight points from a draw would be enough for both sides to escape relegation, whatever happens to the Red Rose at New Road in their match against Worcestershire.

On what has settled down into a very benign pitch at Trent Bridge, and with 110 overs already lost in the game so far, that draw looks a formality.

It was just minutes after play in the other key relegation match in Worcester was abandoned for the day without a ball being bowled, that Notts and Warwickshire resumed.

But, easing home anxiety, the locally-raised, 19-year-old left-hander McCann made a massively impressive 130 to add to scores of 51 in his maiden first-class innings against Durham in August and 154 in his next game against three-in-a-row county champions Surrey.

Jack Haynes offered support with a measured 47 in a stand of 127 and South African Kyle Verreynne made an increasingly rapid unbeaten 76, dominating a fifth-wicket stand of 98.