Steven Mullaney reflected on an extraordinary day of Specsavers County Championship cricket at Edgbaston at the end of the first day against Warwickshire.

The Nottinghamshire captain was one of the leading performers as the Green and Golds restricted the home side to 181 for three, after Jeetan Patel had won the toss and opted to bat first.

Mullaney bowled a spell of more than two hours, returning figures of 17-8-22-0 to put the brakes on any acceleration from the home side.

Given that so few runs were scored, Mullaney felt that his side came out of the day with an even share of the spoils.

“It’s probably evenly-poised, I think,” he said. “I’ve never seen a middle session like that, where only 39 runs were scored in just 35 overs. It was pretty extraordinary but credit to (Dominic) Sibley. He dug in but as I’ve said numerous times, if we keep bowling the way we are we are going to get a bagful of wickets at some point and we have to keep persisting with it because we are doing a lot of good things.

“I thought we bowled very well as a unit. We attacked the stumps quite well. It’s a slow wicket, so it is hard to score on but at the same time if you bowl a half-volley it still goes for four and I don’t think we bowled many of them.

“So I think we stuck to our disciplines well for the full 93 overs and we have to come back and do it again tomorrow morning.”

Mullaney opted to request a toss at the start of the day and remarked that he would have made the same decision in hindsight.

“100%. It’s a decent wicket and I don’t think it’s going to get much worse, although it might turn as the game goes on. They’ve not got away from us which is a positive and if we can pick a couple up in the morning we’ll be looking to bowl them out in that middle session at some point and we’ve then got a chance to bat long.”

With the home side still 19 runs away from a first batting point after 93 overs of the match the tempo is likely to be increased on the second day but Mullaney said that would be down to the home side’s approach.

“That’s not a question I can answer. All I can concentrate on is us getting out there and taking seven more wickets.”

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