[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

County Championship, Division One

vs Nottinghamshire

Trent Bridge, Nottingham

Day One

Morning: Notts won the toss and elected to bat on a Friday morning of patchy sunshine. Haseeb Hameed was the first casualty of Nathan Smith, who removed two of the opener's stumps for 11 with the new ball, and the Kiwi proceeded to have Ben Duckett caught behind for 9; but despite some tight bowling with the softening Kookaburra, there were no further wickets as Notts shaded the session and reached lunch on 83-2.

Afternoon: The Kookaburra offered nothing to the bowlers as the day wore on, and even reining the batsmen in proved increasingly difficult as Ben Slater and Joe Clarke filled their boots. After much toil, Adam Finch eventually had the former caught down the leg-side on 70 and Smith claimed his third scalp when Matt Montgomery flashed at a delivery outside off and drew an excellent diving slip catch from Jason Holder for 11. But again, just two wickets in the session and trouble stemming the run flow left the Pears well behind the game at tea on 223-4.

Evening: There was time for Joe Clarke to complete his century to a general rolling of eyes, but no such landmark for fellow turncoat Jack Haynes as he departed LBW to Joe Leach for 15 early in the session. Clarke himself then edged behind on 105 trying to cut Josh Baker, who'd taken some serious tap through the afternoon and deserved his reward. But despite taking the second new ball in the last hour, Notts made it to stumps without further loss on 305-6, and Worcestershire have it all to do on Saturday morning to claw their way back into the game with the Kookaburra now softening once more.