Nottinghamshire will face a big task when they begin their second innings in the Specsavers County Championship match against Hampshire at The Ageas Bowl.

The home county already hold a lead of 364 runs, with six wickets in hand, after closing the second day on 253 for four.

Matt Milnes took two of the wickets for Notts, who gave everything with the ball but were held up by a splendid innings of 147 from James Vince.

Hampshire had seized an advantage late on the first evening, when they reduced Notts to 39 for four, a passage of play that Paul Franks felt was defining.

“We have to deal with those situations better,” said the Assistant Head Coach, “And we’ve got to be better and we’ve got to believe that we can get through those tricky phases.

“Initially the innings had started quite calmly. Kraigg (Brathwaite) and Jacob (Libby), whilst they hadn’t rattled along, suddenly they got into a bit of a panic and wickets started to fall.

“Fidel (Edwards) got his tail up, we’ve seen that before at domestic level and he’s done it well and we found ourselves under the cosh.

“That carried on this morning. We didn’t face enough balls as a top order and have been constantly behind the 8-ball.”

Franks was full of admiration for the way Vince batted, although it might not have gone so well for the Hampshire skipper.

“You sort of look back to the first 10 balls he faced in each innings,” reflected Franks.

“We felt he looked a little bit vulnerable then. Mark Footitt nearly bowled him out first ball today and on another day that might hit off stump.

“He played and missed at a few in the first innings and on your day he might have scratched one and you’d be off and running but he’s played very fluently once settled at the crease.

“His runs in this game are probably the difference between the two teams and that’s not surprising because he is a fine player.”

At the halfway stage in the match a Nottinghamshire victory looks unlikely but the Coach is looking for a response from his charges.

“We’ve been behind for a good portion of this match - that passage on the first evening really hurt us and we’ve got to find a way to front up and there’s still a lot to be achieved from this match, both as an individual and from a team perspective.

"As a group we’ve got to try and fight our way out of this situation.”

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