County Championship: Nottinghamshire set for first-innings lead against Worcestershire

Lyndon James and Calvin Harrison starred as Nottinghamshire took control of their County Championship Division One match against Worcestershire on day two at Trent Bridge.

Leg-spinner Harrison then returned 3-78, removing Adam Hose, Rob Jones for 90 and then Jason Holder for a second-ball duck, to leave Worcestershire 220-6, still 179 runs behind.

Jones arrived at the crease at four for two and guided Worcestershire to 155-3 by putting on 73 with Hose, who made 33, but both departed in a collapse of three wickets for 31 runs to Harrison to give Nottinghamshire the upper hand.

Needing 27 from 30 balls for a third batting point 40 minutes into play, James helped Nottinghamshire get close.

But Harrison miscued to a running, tumbling Jake Libby at deep mid-on before Liam Patterson-White went to Brett D’Oliveira’s occasional leg-breaks, the captain then running out Luke Fletcher with a direct-hit.

James eventually swatted an Adam Finch full-toss that seemed waist-high straight to midwicket and lingered in vain for it to be called no-ball.

Fletcher, in his first match this year, then put behind him an injury-hit 2023 by removing Gareth Roderick without scoring and Dillon Pennington saw Libby stupendously taken one-handed by Harrison, diving full length at third slip.

It was a rare failure for one of four men in this game playing against their old side as Libby, who left Trent Bridge in autumn 2019, fell for two after posting 1,051 runs at 75.07 in his last nine games.

Pennington then removed last week’s double centurion Kashif Ali, caught at deep backward point for 40, after a stand of 78 with Jones, who fell just short of a century as Harrison took centre stage.

Report supplied by ECB Reporters’ Network.