Nottinghamshire finished on 58-4 at stumps on the second day of their LV= County Championship match against Yorkshire at Trent Bridge.
The Division One leaders had carried on batting until deep into the sixth session of the match, before they eventually declared on 532 for nine. Left with 15 overs to negotiate, at the end of the day, Notts lost 4 wickets in quick succession at the start of their innings before Riki Wessels and Michael Lumb saw the side through to the close without further mishap.
Whilst the day was hugely successful for the visitors, it was tinged with slight disappointment for two of their batsmen, with Gary Ballance falling for 99 and Tim Bresnan for 95.
Gary Keedy was the pick of the home attack, collecting figures of five for 163 from exactly 50 overs.
Wessels, who was unbeaten on 14 at the end of the day said, “It’s never easy to spend the best part of two full days in the field and there was probably a few tired legs going out there to bat.
“Individually, it would be nice to try and get a few runs tomorrow but it’s important we can get as close to them as we can. We’ve got to hang in there for as long as we can, try and get the match into the fourth day and see what happens.”
Yorkshire had resumed from their overnight position of 319-4 with Gary Ballance and Jack Leaning unbeaten overnight.
Both players survived a testing forty minute burst from Luke Fletcher and Harry Gurney, with both bowlers frequently beating the bat.
Leaning secured Yorkshire’s fourth bonus point when he drove Gary Keedy through the off side to take the total beyond 350 in the 108th over.
Ballance was on 94 not out at the time and closing in on his 7th first class hundred of the summer. He advanced to 99 but was then given out lbw by umpire Martin Saggers as he went right across his stumps to Keedy and was pinned on the back foot.
Keedy then claimed his fourth wicket of the innings as Leaning (42) was also given out leg before wicket.
Adil Rashid (42) and Tim Bresnan shared a stand of 46 either side of lunch before Riki Wessels plucked a catch off Luke Fletcher to send back Rashid.
Bresnan became the fourth to pass 50 (121 balls 6x4 1x6) in a stand of 57 with Steven Patterson for the eighth wicket. The 6 took him from 30 to 36 and would have been a ‘heart in mouth’ moment as Gurney took the catch on the deep square leg fence but had already touched the rope as he caught the ball.
Patterson (17) became the fourth to be given out lbw in the innings and third to Keedy, who grabbed his fifth wicket in his 149th over.
Yorkshire carried on after tea, with Ryan Sidebottom joining Bresnan to escort him towards his century.
With the session drawing on – and Bresnan (95) crawling through the nineties – the batsman looked to get there in one hit off Steven Mullaney but picked out Wessels at midwicket.
At that point Joe Root declared the innings closed, leaving Notts to bat for 15 overs.
Mullaney took 8 off Sidebottom’s first over – (barely 12 minutes after the two had been indirect opposition the other way round) but drama was just around the corner.
Alex Hales (0) edged his fourth delivery, from Jack Brooks, through to Jonny Bairstow before Sidebottom collected two wickets in his next over.
Mullaney (9) was caught at second slip by Adam Lyth and James Taylor (0) was caught three balls later by Ballance at third slip.
Samit Patel (0) then nicked Brooks low to slip. As the fielders celebrated the umpires referred the incident to the third umpire, who confirmed that Ballance had taken it cleanly.
Wessels and Lumb managed to negotiate the remainder of the session but have work to do on the third morning, with Notts still 325 away from saving the follow-on.