Nottinghamshire battled hard to remain in the game as rain brought an early conclusion to the third day of their Specsavers County Championship match against Warwickshire at Edgbaston.

After conceding a first innings advantage of 159, Notts had reached 81 for the loss of two wickets when play ended just after lunch.

Steven Mullaney was unbeaten on 38 at the time, and Brendan Taylor was on five not out as the overall deficit was reduced to 71.

During the first part of the morning Warwickshire’s first innings ended on 311, with wickets for Brett Hutton and Dan Christian.

Jake Ball didn’t take to the field, having reported in with a sore elbow – but the pace bowler was quick to play down any injury scares.

“It’s fine,” he said. “It was just a precaution to make sure I’m ready to go again on Friday and at the weekend.

“We only needed two wickets this morning, so it was felt more beneficial for me to take a day off and let it settle down ready for tomorrow.”

Ball agreed that the loss of almost two sessions and the inclement forecast for the final day wasn’t necessarily bad news.

“We’re not in a great position in the game. We had a decent spell this morning with Lumby and Mull but obviously we are on the back foot in this game so any rain will help our situation a little bit.”

Play began on time, in bright sunshine and under blue skies, with Warwickshire on 283 for eight in their first innings, a lead of 131.

Mark Adair and Jeetan Patel had already added 19 for the ninth wicket as they set off again. Notts had two subs on the field at the start, Ben Kitt was on for Luke Fletcher and Will Gidman was deputising for Ball.

Fletcher had suffered a slight tightening of the groin area after making a tumbling stop in the field and Ball had reported slight pain in his elbow after getting through 23 overs the previous day.

Brett Hutton bowled the first over, the 80th of the innings and Steven Mullaney the next, taking the second new ball in the process.

A bouncer from Hutton was pulled by Adair (32) down to long leg, just clearing Brendan Taylor in the process. That took the Bears past 300 and on to a third batting point. The next ball was an identical repeat – except that Taylor had gone back five paces and took the chance cleanly.

Boyd Rankin (2) was last to go, providing Dan Christian with his maiden first class wicket for Notts. The big Irishman fended a short-pitched ball gently into the hands of short leg – giving Taylor his second catch of the morning. Patel remained unbeaten on 19.

Jake Libby had top-scored for Notts on the first day but could only make a single after edging Keith Barker to Rikki Clarke at second slip.

In Nottinghamshire’s first innings the highest stand had been just 30 runs but Mullaney and Michael Lumb sailed past that, putting on 67 either side of lunch.

With the floodlights on - and the gloom gathering - Lumb was given out lbw to Jeetan Patel for 32, early in the afternoon session.

Brendan Taylor played a nice reverse sweep against the spinner to get his innings up and running with a boundary but there was barely any more time available before the umpires had concerns over the light.

Heavy rain soon descended upon Birmingham, scuppering the chances of a resumption in play.

 

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