Dillon Pennington praised the value of both bowling and batting partnerships after Nottinghamshire enjoyed a positive first day against Worcestershire at New Road.

“We had a good day, I think! There were some ups and downs, but I think overall we had a really good day with the ball,” said Pennington.

“We started really well, and then [Freddie McCann] and [Ben Slater] did really well at the end there not to lose any more wickets.”

“We’ll aim to pile on the runs tomorrow morning and put ourselves in a strong position to win the game from there.”

In particular, Pennington relished the conditions that provided the backdrop to his return of 4/50. 

“It’s been nice to have the Dukes back in my hand!” he said. “We wanted to try and put them under pressure as much as we could over the course of the day, but to do that, you have to start strongly.”

Speaking personally, Pennington noted the positives of his own performance, even while indicating a drive to be even better. 

“It was okay!” he smiled, when asked to rate his own showing with the ball in hand. “I went through some ups and downs, but I felt really good early on.

“After that, [Josh Tongue] bowled really well. He was very quick on a pitch that offered a lot for the bowlers.

“He held down the other end, and I thought we worked really well in a partnership together, so it was nice to be back bowling with him.”

The seamer noted that his familiarity with New Road also gave him an added edge.

“For me, I think it’s more that I know which end I like bowling at, and I know what it’s like to bowl here, obviously having played a lot of games here.

“It does help coming into the game, with it being one of those things that I don’t need to think about – in comparison to if I was going somewhere that I did need to think about that.

“It’s quite nice coming back to the ground where I played all my youth cricket at the start of my career and I do love coming back here, but it’s even better when we have a really good day!”

Pennington was also quick to highlight the fielding contributions around him, singling out captain Haseeb Hameed’s sharp run-out of Ethan Brookes. 

“[Haseeb’s] outstanding, isn’t he? He saves me a lot of runs at mid-off, which I absolutely love, and he puts his heart into everything,” he said.

“It showed how good he is in the field, and how switched on he is, that he created a chance like that, which really boosted the momentum going forward.”

Such a momentum boost that proved especially pertinent when the requirement to remain clear-minded came into sharp focus during a lengthy afternoon delay for thunderstorms.

“All season, we’ve been switched on, and especially in the moments that we’ve needed to be, and I think we showed that today,” stated Pennington.

“Just after that rain delay, we showed that especially, when we said ‘we know what we need to do,’ and we proved that we were on it.”

Having wrapped up the Worcestershire innings following the delay, Pennington then praised the determination of top-order duo Slater and McCann, who showed a high level of application to see the day out. 

“They were outstanding in pretty tricky conditions, when the ball was hard and doing plenty, so that would have been difficult,” he acknowledged.

“But, they made it look easy, so hopefully they can keep going tomorrow!”

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