A ruthless performance from Nottinghamshire’s bowling unit emphasised the gulf in class between the two sides on the second day of the first class fixture against Cambridge MCCU at Fenner’s.
After declaring overnight on their score of 530 for eight, Notts made light work of bowling out the students in the morning session. They needed only 23 overs to dismiss their hosts for only 52. Honours were shared with the ball, with Brett Hutton taking four for six, Jake Ball grabbed three for 21, Harry Gurney two for three and Luke Wood one for 13.
Batting again, with a first innings lead of 478, Notts reached 25 for the loss of Brendan Taylor by lunch. Sadly, during the interval, the expected heavy rains hit the ground and the entire afternoon session was lost.
The restart saw Notts move their score to 170 for five, an overall lead of 648, with Samit Patel making 62.
Despite the rain delay wiping out a full session Wayne Noon felt it had been a very worthwhile day, even if the bowlers hadn’t been taxed for too long.
“The pleasing point for us is that they were all nicked behind,” he said. “They all caught well in the grabbers, Ready caught a couple of good catches and the four main seamers had one spell and put it in the right areas.
“Yes, there is a big gap between the two teams but we bowled very well and put it in decent areas on a decent pitch.”
With Jackson Bird watching on, the competition for places has never been higher at the club as the Head Coach confirmed.
“It’s been great, they all put their hand up and it’s been like it all pre-season," Noon said.
"You add into the mix Stuart Broad to come back in as well for a few matches, so someone else is going to miss out there as well. Although people say it must be a good position to be in, at times you are racking your head as to which are your best four and it’s not through form, we’ve got six guys who could easily play for Notts and could get in any other team in the country.”
Whilst the bowlers took their turn in the spotlight, some of the batsmen missed out.
“That’s the nature of these university games,” said Noon. “Samit, Mullaney, Wessels and Ready have all done well. Ideally Lumby and Brendan Taylor would have got a few but that wasn’t to be this week; that’s just how it is.”
Luke Wood claimed the county’s initial first class wicket of the summer, having the left-handed opener Joe Tetley (6) caught behind in the fourth over of the day.
Chris Read had to move sharply in front of the slip cordon to take the edge and he was on his toes again soon afterwards. Harry Ellison pushed firmly at Jake Ball. The nick looked to be sailing high over first slip but the ‘keeper soared high to his right to clutch a stunner.
The gulf between the two sides took on even greater proportions when Ball then removed Ben Bryant for nought, courtesy of Brett Hutton’s catch at third slip.
Adil Arif (7) was the fourth wicket to fall, taken at short leg by Brendan Taylor, to give the England Lion his third wicket in 16 deliveries.
Harry Gurney joined the attack in the 13th over and only took five deliveries to join the list of wicket-takers, trapping Tom Colverd (3) lbw.
Opener Harrison Palmer (10) had hung around for 31 deliveries but fell as soon as Hutton grabbed the ball, Samit Patel with the catch at third slip.
Hutton took his wicket-taking sequence to three for six in just nine balls with the wickets of Drew Brierley (0) and Alistair Allchin (3).
Mullaney caught the former at second slip and Gurney pouched his chance at mid on after Allchin had tried to subdue the pressure with a meaty swing of the bat.
The students limped their way past 50 before two lbws closed out the innings; Emerton (3) to Hutton and Barton (0) against Gurney.
Batting for a second time Nottinghamshire sustained their only set-back of the morning when Brendan Taylor was given out lbw first ball, bowled by Allchin.
By lunch, with Patel and Michael Lumb at the crease together, the lead had already extended beyond 500 but heavy rain then set in, wiping out the prospects of a resumption until 4.30pm.
Allchin settled into a tidy line and length from the Gresham Road End and followed up three consecutive maidens by bowling Lumb for 12.
The bowler kept going for almost an hour but visibly tired as Patel approached his 50 and a short ball enabled a huge pull over the leg side rope to reach the landmark (59 balls 10x4 1x6).
A century appeared to be in the offing but a gentle push towards the spin of Arksey saw a thin tickle carry into the hands of Ellison at slip; Patel gone for 62.
Luke Wood made an attractive 22 before hitting Arksey out to long off. His dismissal brought Harry Gurney to the crease and threw the bat at everything in an over from Emerton and bludgeoned four of them away for boundaries.
He continued to go after his shots and launched a huge six to reach a career best 27 not out by stumps. The final ball of the day accounted for Hutton, who followed his exploits with the ball with a splendid innings of 44.
Looking to crown his day with a 50, his heave towards the midwicket boundary was well bagged by Colverd, giving Arksey his third wicket.
The 2015 season saw dramatic last-gasp four day victories, thrilling limited-overs contests and an historic Investec Ashes Test, all in the unique surroundings of Trent Bridge.
This season, we’d wager, will be no less enthralling and frankly we’d hate for you to miss out.