Dillon Pennington enjoyed a fruitful return to Worcestershire with a four-wicket haul as rain failed to dampen Nottinghamshire’s dominance on day one at New Road.

Despite a showery thunderstorm wiping out 25 overs of the day during the afternoon, Pennington led the charge in dismissing the hosts for 182 by returning figures of 4/50.

He was well backed up by another former Pear in Josh Tongue, who claimed 3/59, while Academy graduate pair Lyndon James and Liam Patterson-White picked up one scalp each.

In response, a tricky final 16 overs were negotiated by Freddie McCann and Ben Slater as the visitors reached stumps on 46-1, trailing overall by 136.

After Haseeb Hameed elected to bowl first, and with the Dukes ball back in hand for the first time since May, the Green and Gold attack saw Worcestershire fail to register a single run for the first 15 minutes of the day.

They probed to build pressure, and wasted little time in collecting their first reward when Pennington had Rehaan Edavalath caught behind by Kyle Verreynne for nought.

Kashif Ali and Jake Libby rebuilt somewhat to 25-1, but it was at that point the real carnage began, as Pennington and Tongue engineered a loss of six for 62 as the hosts fell to 86-7.

The former kicked the collapse off by removing Kashif, lbw for 15, before his partner in crime burst onto the board with two in two.

Tongue first had Libby held by Verreynne behind the stumps for 18 before Brett D’Oliveira saw his off stump flattened for a first-ball duck.

A strong lbw appeal on his hat-trick ball, which came from the first delivery of his next over, was turned down, but in the interim, Pennington had already claimed Dan Lategan lbw for four.

That left the Pears five down, which quickly turned to six when Hameed produced a sharp piece of fielding to run out Ethan Brookes at the bowler’s end, after he had tried and failed to scamper a perilous single.

Gareth Roderick, in top-scoring individually with 61 and by sharing stands worth 33 with Matthew Waite and later 71 with Tom Taylor, at least restored some respectability to the score.

However, with Waite sharply caught by Joe Clarke off James for 18 and Taylor top-edging Tongue to Mohammad Abbas for 40, Roderick was left to shepherd the tail with the hosts still only 157-8.

A lengthy rain delay between 2:40pm and 5:00pm, that included multiple bouts of thunder and lightning as heavy grey cloud enveloped New Road, offered respite.

However, following the resumption in the late afternoon, it took Pennington and Patterson-White just four overs to polish off the innings.

Ben Allison was lbw to the seamer for five before Roderick became the last man out, lbw to the left-arm spin of Patterson-White while sweeping.

The task at the very back end of the day, to bat through for 16 overs, was a tricky one for the visiting batters, but despite losing Hameed early, it was one that Slater and McCann rose to admirably to ensure Notts enjoyed the better of the truncated first day.

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