15 wickets fall on Day One at Trent Bridge
England fast bowlers Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson faced each other in LV=Insurance County Championship action for the first time in five years yet it was Brett Hutton who was the dominant figure with ball in hand on a day of 15 wickets at Trent Bridge.
Hutton finished with five for 66 as Lancashire were dismissed for 214 inside 45 overs after being asked to bat first on what looked a bowler-friendly pitch, although the home side have work to do if they are to secure a first-innings lead.
After John Bohannon’s 68 was supplemented by an unbeaten 48 by Tom Bailey late in the innings, Nottinghamshire were 119 for five when bad light brought an early close, of which Haseeb Hameed had made 57 not out.
Broad took two for 41 and another England bowler Olly Stone two for 58 in the Lancashire innings. Anderson has sent down just seven overs in the contest so far and is yet to take a wicket.
It had looked like being Lancashire’s morning until the last 26 balls of the session saw them slip from 109 for two to 118 for five.
Nottinghamshire initially struggled to find the right lengths, with Broad and Hutton conceding easy boundaries, and though Lancashire lost a wicket in the sixth over when Luke Wells tickled one to the wicketkeeper off Hutton, Bohannon and George Balderson - the latter promoted to open alongside Wells in the absence of the injured Keaton Jennings - added 59 in 53 balls for the second wicket.
As Lancashire rattled along at upwards of five an over, Olly Stone proved no more effective at checking the rate at first change, conceding five boundaries in his first four overs, Balderson helping himself to three in the same over.
Luke Fletcher, the first Nottinghamshire bowler to look as though he could give his captain some control, found the edge to have Balderson caught at first slip, but it was after Steven Croft drove loosely at Broad to be caught behind that the wheels came off somewhat for the Red Rose.
Dane Vilas, skipper in place of Jennings, perished at first slip first ball pushing at one from Hutton, who followed up by drawing George Bell into a shot that had him taken at second slip.
After lunch, Colin de Grandhomme chased a wide long hop to gift Broad a second wicket, before Hutton produced the ball of the innings to remove the threat still posed by Bohannon, nipping one back off the pitch to rattle off stump.
Hutton’s second five-for of the season at Trent Bridge was completed when Tom Hartley fell into a trap set for the hook, Ben Slater diving to hold a fine catch 10 yards inside the rope, and at 155 for eight, Nottinghamshire had Lancashire where they hoped they would be after winning the toss, which .
Yet they had reckoned without Bailey, who took the view that he might as well stick out his chin and throw the bat, even as Stone wound up the hostility. Bailey hit two sixes, one each off Fletcher and Stone, and six fours, three of them in one over by Stone despite one short delivery striking him a painful blow on the upper arm.
Stone ultimately picked up the last two wickets, Lyndon James holding a catch at third man the equal of Slater’s earlier, before Anderson looped one to Ben Duckett at second slip. But 59 runs had been added.
When Bailey then saw off Duckett and Slater in his first three overs, yorking the England left-hander before Slater gave a cheap catch to square leg, Nottinghamshire were 14 for two and Lancashire had their tails up.
Hameed picked up some boundaries as Bailey neared the end of his spell and cut Anderson for another with some authority as he and Matt Montgomery plotted a careful path to tea, but the home side suffered a double setback soon after the resumption.
Bailey was off the field immediately after the interval, but Balderson stepped into the breach, thudding one into Montgomery’s front pad to win an lbw verdict and then having Joe Clarke caught behind off an inside edge.
Nottinghamshire lost their fifth wicket for 85 when James, driving, edged De Grandhomme to second slip, at which point much seemed to depend on Hameed and his skipper and fellow Lancastrian Steven Mullaney if the home side were to come close to the Lancashire total.
Report by ECB Reporters Network.
