It felt like a more conventional early-season day at Trent Bridge on day three of Nottinghamshire’s Rothesay County Championship Division One match against Essex — a day where both teams battled to gain control of a game that, after the first innings, remained finely balanced.
The sun made only brief appearances as the game began to take shape. Essex lost their final five wickets in the morning session for just 66 runs, giving them a slim lead of 20, which Notts quickly wiped out. From there, the hosts looked to build a lead that would make day four worth tuning in for, but there was still work to do.
The Notts captain, Haseeb Hameed, appeared determined to ensure his side took the game deep. He is often labelled a blocker, but it’s more accurate to say he holds his wicket in high regard. Today there were moments where he punched and drove with real authority against an Essex attack that couldn’t quite get the ball to sing as it had on the first morning.
The quality of the opening bowlers was still clear, but with no movement through the air or off the pitch, there was more opportunity to find the boundary. With support from Ben Slater, the Nottinghamshire reply got off to the ideal start — an opening stand of 113 from the first 32.3 overs.
With Notts starting to pull away, Essex turned to the trusted Simon Harmer. It made sense with the left-handed Slater on strike — even though Harmer, by his high standards, doesn’t boast the best record at Trent Bridge. Turning the ball away from the left-hander, he probed with precision and began to cause problems. He eventually bowled Slater for a well-made 67, an innings that helped put Notts firmly on the front foot.
Harmer cannot just turn a cricket ball, but he can also turn a match. Freddie McCann, the promising Notts youngster, was next in. With another left-hander to bowl at, Harmer settled into his work and eventually won the contest — McCann falling for a nine-ball duck, directing a catch to Jordan Cox to hand the South African his second wicket. It came during a marathon 22-over spell that gave Notts some questions to answer.
The momentum had shifted just enough to suggest Notts could throw the match away rather than remain slight favourites. Joe Clarke wasn’t about to let Harmer dictate the pace and played his usual attacking shots. However, after a brisk 19, he edged behind to Michael Pepper off Jamie Porter, giving the Essex bowler his first wicket of the innings. Suddenly, Notts were 144 for three.
Haseeb Hameed absorbed the pressure, playing the responsible innings while allowing the players around him to keep the scoreboard ticking. Jack Haynes, who moved from Worcestershire, is still waiting to truly kick-start his Notts career, but he played his part in a solid fourth-wicket partnership.
It looked like Hameed would bring up his hundred and end the day with Nottinghamshire firmly in the ascendancy, before he had his middle stump untimely ripped out by the Thain of Noah.
Noah Thain hasn’t enjoyed the best of games — expensive in the first innings and largely overlooked by his skipper — but the 20-year-old was rewarded with the prized wicket of the Notts captain. While it’s still hard to see Essex contriving a win from here, the dismissal made things just a little less comfortable for the hosts.
Sam Cook continued Essex’s late fightback, removing Kyle Verreynne — Nott’s first-innings hero — for just three, caught behind by Pepper. With the new ball available early tomorrow, Essex will begin to sense there’s still a way to win this game.
Notts still have Lyndon James to come, and with Haynes unbeaten on 49, they’ll need to bat until at least lunch to keep control. It sets up what could be a fiercely competitive final day.
