Nottinghamshire took charge of their Vitality County Championship match against Worcestershire at Trent Bridge. They started the day on 305 for six, and Calvin Harrison (52) and Lyndon James (96) continued to build on their already decent seventh-wicket partnership. The pair were finally separated after adding 146 to the Notts total. At that point, Notts were 384 for seven, Josh Baker dismissing Harrison having brought up his first first-class fifty. Notts would have felt that 400 was still within their grasp, Liam Pattererson-White being no mug with the bat, but he departed without scoring in the next over as Brett D’Oliveira had him trapped lbw without scoring. James was still on course for a fourth red-ball century, and even when Luke Fletcher was run out for six, Notts were still six runs shy of 400, and James was still a lusty blow away from bringing up three figures.
Worcestershire were keen to mop up the last wicket, so they took the extra half an hour, delaying the lunch break. Adam Fich, into his twentieth over of the match, bowled a waist-height full-toss that James should have dispatched into the stands. Instead, it fell into Baker’s grateful hands, much to the protestations of James, who felt the ball was too high. The umpires not sharing his view led the players from the field of play for lunch, with Notts all out for 399 and James four short of another century.
Fletcher, playing in his first first-team match of the season, ran in from the Radcliffe Road End like he had so many times before, intent on making life as difficult as possible for Worcestershire’s opening batters. It took the well-built bowler three balls to trap his season’s first victim. Gareth Roderick was lbw without getting off the mark, to the delight of the home support. Jake Libby, who started his career at Trent Bridge, soon followed Roderick back to the pavilion as Harrison, diving to his right at slip, took a superb low catch to leave the visitors four for two.
Kashif Ali (40), who has had a fine start to the season, showed that he is well worth watching; he was compact and utilised a good selection of shots and with Rob Jones was starting to get Worcestershire back into the game. The players that moved to Trent Bridge over the winter eventually led to Ali’s downfall; cramped for room, he guided a Dillon Pennington delivery to Jack Haynes, who judged the catch in front of him perfectly. Jones (91) was the second player of the day to perish in the nineties and was one of two players caught and bowled by Harrison.
D’Olivera and Nathan Smith steadied the Worcestershire innings, adding 34 runs for the seventh wicket before the end of play, leaving Worcestershire trailing by 179 runs with four wickets in hand.
