Nottinghamshire made 161 for two, after being put in to bat, on a shortened opening day of their latest LV= County Championship match, against Middlesex at Lord’s.

Thanks to an unbeaten 88 from Steven Mullaney, the visitors held the upper hand when bad light finally stopped play, with 24 overs remaining in the day.

Mullaney, on his first appearance at Lord’s, batted with great concentration and resolve to move within 12 of a fifth career century after sharing a stand of 115 for the second wicket with Michael Lumb who made 54.

Mick Newell, Nottinghamshire's Director of Cricket, had words of praise for the opener.

“I think he played really well,” said Newell. “It wasn’t an easy wicket and you only have to look at how many times Michael Lumb played and missed to realise it was moving around quite a lot, yet Mull looked quite comfortable for the most part.”

Newell admitted that Notts would have batted first, in any case. “We would have done – and I thought they were going to but may have had a last minute change of heart. We think it may do something for the bowlers throughout, so it is very important that we make a good first innings score.”

The Nottinghamshire side showed a couple of changes, with Alex Hales and Ajmal Shahzad being omitted. Riki Wessels, who started the contest against Warwickshire before being replaced by James Taylor, and Paul Franks, replaced them.

Neil Dexter, who took five for 27 against Notts in the first match of the season, entered the attack in the 16th over and again immediately helped himself to an important Nottinghamshire wicket.

After beginning with a wide and then a dot ball, he had Wessels (14) caught in the gully by Sam Robson from the next delivery.

Mullaney, on his first appearance at the ground, had made an unusual start to his innings in that he began with a 5.

Dropping on the leg side he called Wessels through for a tight run. Joe Denly’s shy from square leg hit the stumps and ricocheted away for four overthrows.

Gareth Berg clearly had plans for Lumb, often bowling around the wicket with a Michael Holding-type field of five slips, or four slips and a gully, in situ but the experienced left hander wouldn’t be drawn into a mistake.

Lumb did have to take a time-out though after being struck amidships by Gurjit Sandhu and needed treatment on the field as he gulped to get his breath back.

Mullaney passed fifty (133 balls, 6x4) for the sixth time in the championship this season before accelerating with three crisp boundaries in as many overs.

The century stand came up but then Middlesex missed an opportunity as John Simpson, the wicketkeeper, missed a stumping as Mullaney advanced towards Rayner.

Lumb reached his own half century (135 balls, 7x4) as the session ended with the visitors on 153-1.

The breakthrough arrived soon after the resumption, in fairly gloomy conditions, when Lumb (54) top-edged a sweep against Rayner to Dexter at deep square leg.

After one brief stoppage, the players returned to add a couple more runs before play was eventually called off at around 4.30pm.