Report: Nottinghamshire v Warwickshire, LV= Insurance County Championship

Day Four

Tim Bresnan led the way as Warwickshire pulled off a stunning victory on the final day of their LV= Insurance County Championship match at Trent Bridge.

The 36-year-old Yorkshireman finished unbeaten on 68, sharing a stand of 113 with England fast bowler Olly Stone as Warwickshire chased down a target of 333 to win by three wickets despite England opener Dominic Sibley being unable to bat because of a broken finger.

Bresnan had an escape on 56 when Nottinghamshire wicketkeeper Tom Moores put down a difficult chance off Stuart Broad but had earned his luck and his eight boundaries, completing the victory by running two to backward point off Dane Paterson with 8.1 overs to spare.

The result was particularly frustrating for Paterson, Nottinghamshire’s debutant overseas player. The South African seamer looked to have swung the match his new team’s way when he took three wickets in 17 balls shortly after lunch.

By dismissing Sam Hain and Matt Lamb after both had made fifties, Paterson seemed to have removed Warwickshire’s best hopes of emerging with a victory.

But Bresnan and Stone, who made his second highest first-class score to go with five wickets in the match, inflicted more pain on the home side and though Stone was out for 43 with 36 still needed and Broad giving his full commitment to the cause, Danny Briggs held his nerve to help Bresnan complete the job.

Nottinghamshire had been ahead in the match since midway through the opening day and felt they were in pole position to end their drought when a wicket in the last over of the third day left Warwickshire 85 for three, still 247 runs behind.

But Hain and Lamb frustrated their hopes of making more inroads by batting through the morning session, Hain surviving a barrage of short deliveries from Broad, who hit him on the back and on the helmet in a ferocious three-over burst just before lunch.

The fourth-wicket pair added 89, Hain building a patient fifty off 117 balls with six fours, Lamb completing his off 111 with seven fours.  

The picture changed when Patterson replaced Broad at the pavilion end after lunch, the skiddy right-arm seamer removing Hain with his fourth delivery, edged low to wicketkeeper Tom Moores, then sending Lamb’s off-stump flying and uprooting Michael Burgess’s leg stump in what felt like a decisive spell.

But though Broad, who bowled 20 overs on the final day and 49 in the match, removed Stone, who edged a drive to Moores, with the second new ball soon after hitting his England teammate on the elbow, it was Nottinghamshire’s only subsequent success on a deeply disappointing day for them as Bresnan remained defiant.

Day Three

Warwickshire need a further 248 runs to inflict more misery on Nottinghamshire on the final day of an evenly poised LV= Insurance County Championship match, although the likely absence of injured England opener Dom Sibley may tip the balance in the home side’s favour.

Chasing 333 to win from a minimum 130 overs, they lost Rob Yates – opening in the place of Sibley – leg before to Stuart Broad with one that kept a touch low and Indian Test batsman Hanuma Vihari, whose off-stump was sent cartwheeling by a pacy all-rounder Lyndon James, to be 34 for two.

Skipper Will Rhodes and Sam Hain added 51 but the loss of Rhodes, trapped on the crease by left-arm spinner Liam Patterson-White as Nottinghamshire seek to end a winless run in first-class cricket that stretches back almost three years, may be a key moment.

Warwickshire set up their target by bowling out Nottinghamshire for 260, left-arm spinner Danny Briggs taking four for 68 and England pace bowler Olly Stone three for 66.

England opener Sibley, nursing a fractured finger suffered on the opening day here, is unlikely to play any part on the final day, although an emergency appearance has not been ruled out. 

Nottinghamshire had looked well placed at 128 for two overnight, with a lead of 200, but began the day by losing both Haseeb Hameed and Joe Clarke before either could add substantially to the half-centuries they carried forward. Hameed edged Rhodes to wicketkeeper Michael Burgess before Stone removed Clarke in similar fashion.

James and Steven Mullaney cautiously added 57 for the fifth wicket before Stone thudded a fast, straight ball into James’s pads, but then Warwickshire claimed five wickets for 23 runs – three of them in the space of four deliveries to Briggs – to leave the home side nine down before the mid-afternoon pause for the Royal funeral.

Mullaney and Tom Moores took turns to hammer sixes back over the spinner’s head. But Mullaney slapped the fifth ball of the next over straight to point, Liam Patterson-White was bowled by the sixth and, after Broad hurried through for a single after surviving the hat-trick ball at the start of his next over, Briggs bowled Moores off an inside edge.

Broad departed soon afterwards, edging Olly Hannon-Dalby to second slip.

Zak Chappell and Dane Paterson added 39 for the last wicket as Paterson thrashed five boundaries – five of them in an entertaining duel with Stone – before skewing one in the air to become a fourth victim for Briggs.

It swelled the Nottinghamshire total to 260 to leave a difficult target on a wicket showing signs of deterioration but Warwickshire had more time on their side than they might have anticipated.

Day Two

Nottinghamshire built on a handy first-innings lead to put themselves in a strong position after day two of their LV= Insurance County Championship match against Warwickshire as they seek a first win in first-class cricket since June 2018.

Joe Clarke, who made a century in each innings when these sides last met in 2019, looked in ominous form and both he and Haseeb Hameed posted half-centuries as they built on a 72-run advantage to stretch Nottinghamshire’s lead to exactly 200.

Earlier, Warwickshire confirmed that England opener Dom Sibley suffered a small fracture to the second finger of his right hand when he put down a catch at first slip on Thursday and in his absence they were all out for 201.

Stuart Broad and debutant overseas player Dane Paterson finished with three wickets each, while left-arm spinner Liam Patterson-White followed his fine unbeaten 73 on the opening day with the pivotal wicket of Sam Hain for 72.

Hain’s eight boundaries included a couple of wristy leg-side fours off Paterson and two punched handsomely through the off side off Zak Chappell and his stand with nightwatchman Danny Briggs added 83 for the fourth wicket after Will Rhodes had edged behind from Broad’s second ball of the morning. 

Briggs was reprieved by a no ball when caught and bowled by Paterson on 19, dropped at first slip in the same over and then by wicketkeeper Tom Moores off Steven Mullaney on 28, but ran out of luck three balls after lunch as Broad pinned him in front working to leg.

It was the England fast bowler’s 150th first-class wicket for Nottinghamshire, Moores having made Rhodes his 100th first-class dismissal. 

Bowling changes brought the next two wickets. Matt Lamb edged a drive to second slip as Lyndon James struck with his first ball before the introduction of Patterson-White paid the biggest dividend as Hain, stepping forward to defend, was hit on the front pad.

Michael Burgess and Tim Bresnan dug in, adding 23 in 11 overs to reach tea at 199 for six before Paterson’s forbearance was rewarded with the last three Warwickshire wickets in the space of six deliveries, Bresnan ballooning a catch to gully off the shoulder to give the South African seamer his first Nottinghamshire wicket before Burgess and Olly Hannon-Dalby both went leg before.

Ben Slater fell cheaply to England’s Olly Stone for the second time in the match as Nottinghamshire began their second innings but Hameed’s 52-run stand with Ben Duckett for the second wicket, which ended when Rhodes trapped Duckett in front, gave Clarke a platform and he reeled off eight boundaries in reaching 50 off 67 balls.

Day One

A career-best unbeaten 73 by all-rounder Liam Patterson-White led a Nottinghamshire recovery from 119 for six to 273 all out on the opening day of their LV= Insurance County Championship match against Warwickshire, who were 24 for two at the close. 

Patterson-White, a 22-year-old left-arm spinner playing only his seventh first-class match, batted for three hours and eight minutes and hit 12 boundaries, striking the ball cleanly on both sides of the wicket.

Skipper Will Rhodes, fourth seamer in the absence of the injured Liam Norwell, was the most successful Warwickshire bowler with four for 53. 

With England’s Dom Sibley not taking his usual place at the top of the order, Warwickshire hoped to survive the 10 overs they faced at the end of the day but instead lost Rob Yates and debutant Indian Test batsman Hanuma Vihari without scoring, the latter a victim for England paceman Stuart Broad on his return to county action.

Zak Chappell removed Rob Yates with the help of a fine, diving catch by Tom Moores behind the stumps, before Broad had Vihari taken low down at third slip by Haseeb Hameed.

Olly Stone, who made his Test debut in India in the winter, earlier took two wickets from five sharp spells on his return to county action. 

Stone struck in his fourth over to have Ben Slater caught at second slip at the second attempt by Sam Hain as Nottinghamshire endured a difficult morning. Hameed, dropped on two, chipped a Rhodes full toss straight to extra cover before Tim Bresnan brought one back to have left-hander Ben Duckett leg before.  Rhodes then brilliantly ran out Lyndon James at the non-striker’s end with a direct hit from mid-off leaving the home side 63 for four. 

Steven Mullaney, dropped by Sibley at first slip on 26, was caught athletically one-handed by Vihari at square leg off Rhodes for 31, before Joe Clarke, tempted by some width from Stone, was caught behind off a top edge for 29.

Moores, who had an escape on six, was bowled off stump by Rhodes for 31 after he and Patterson-White added 63 for the seventh wicket, including a five-run penalty when a ball from spinner Danny Briggs struck a fielding helmet behind the stumps. 

After Broad hit 21 off 19 balls before becoming Rhodes’s fourth victim, edging to first slip, Patterson-White shrugged off blows to the body by Stone and the head by Bresnan to share another 63-stand for the ninth wicket with Chappell before Bresnan wrapped up the innings by dismissing both Chappell and debutant South Africa bowler Dane Paterson for three for 48.