All of Nottinghamshire's batsmen made contributions to their total of 303/5, as the hosts took a 27-run lead over Lancashire on Day Two at Trent Bridge in the Specsavers County Championship.
The openers Jake Libby (54) and Steven Mullaney (43) set the tone with a solid 86-run stand for the first wicket, before Samit Patel (51*) and Michael Lumb (43) bolstered the total further. Lancashire were bowled out for 276 in the second over of the day and their first innings total was made to look inadequate when several of Nottinghamshire's batsmen made starts with the bat.
Bad light saw a delay of 40 minutes at the start of the evening session, before causing play to finish early with Notts on 303/5. Lancashire endured a tough day in the field after Imran Tahir's fifth ball of the day ended their first innings. The South-African spinner finished with figures of 4-81 to put his side in control after removing Matthew Parkinson lbw for 3 with the eleventh ball of the day to dismiss Lancashire for 276.
Libby and captain Mullaney then set the tone beautifully for Notts and scored freely to put a serious dent in Lancashire's total, with both openers hitting their first respective deliveries for a boundary. The fifty-partnership was achieved in a mere 63 balls and a golden opportunity to find the breakthrough was squandered when Matthew Parkinson dropped Mullaney on 33 at deep square leg.
Thankfully, his drop did not prove too costly, although Mullaney's eye-catching innings of 43 with nine boundaries largely set the tone for a strong day with the bat for his side. Adding ten more runs to his score, the Notts skipper played on to Kyle Jarvis (2-79) after adding 86 runs with young Libby, who went on to secure a half-century just before lunch in 68 deliveries.
Lancashire enjoyed a good spell after lunch, reducing Notts from 120/1 to 136/3 when Jarvis and Neil Wagner (1-68) had Libby and Greg Smith dismissed in quick succession. Libby fell first, edging a half-hearted prod behind to Steven Croft off Wagner, as he failed to add any more runs to his lunchtime score of 54, before Smith was trapped lbw by Jarvis for 30.
Jarvis' spell continued to cause Nottinghamshire's batsmen problems, as he became engaged in a riveting battle with Zimbabwean compatriot Brendan Taylor, but the experience batsman was able to get on top of Jarvis, adding a further 84 runs with Lumb for the fourth-wicket stand. It was clear to see that their partnership had been forced to take a much more attritional passage, owing to Lancashire's strong comeback with the ball after lunch, but Taylor brought up the fifty-partnership in style with a straight six off Parkinson.
The Zimbabwean batsman repeated the shot again on the approach to tea, but he was unable to make it through to the interval, as Jordan Clark (2-58) had him dismissed at 210/4. Clark's bouncer forced Taylor to duck out of the way, but Taylor's bat was left hanging and he skied a routine catch to Tom Smith to give Lancashire respite before the break.
Clark had his second wicket after tea, taking a sharp return catch off his own bowling with one hand to remove Lumb for 43, but a combination of resilient batting and bad light meant that this was Lancashire's final breakthrough of the day. Patel led the way with a calm and assured half-century, sharing an unbroken partnership worth 62 runs with Riki Wessels (25*) to extend Nottinghamshire's lead to 27 runs by stumps.
Patel reached fifty in 77 balls with seven boundaries, as his partnership with Wessels moved along at a good pace either side of a 40-minute delay for bad light, as they added the first fifty runs of their stand in 88 deliveries, taking Notts to a third batting point in the closing stages of a brilliant day for the home side and a disappointing one for the Division One front runners.
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