v Loughborough MCCU

Brendan Taylor is 12th man to make debut century for Nottinghamshire

Day 3
Nottinghamshire's batsmen made the necessary improvement, another step-up before Sunday, particularly by the bowlers, and they should be ready for a Division 1 county.

Brendan Taylor continued where he had finished on day 2, hitting his first ball for six to bring up his fifty. Batting at a fair rate of knots he and Wessels continued until Riki was LBW to Bobby Gamble for 60. Alex Hales then partnered Brendan Taylor until the Zimbabwean had reached his maiden Nottinghamshire century and then prompty got out to Nugent for 105. Hales now with the other Taylor, Titch, continued until after lunch when Hales was bowled by Kumar for 83. The captain joined Taylor until a target of 362 had been set; Titch 62* and Read 46*. 

In the second over of the students' chase. Harry Gurney again bagged an early wicket, bowling the students' captain, the built for comfort, Anish Patel for 5.

The Mo-dot, Azad, then resumed where he'd finished on day 2 occupying the crease until hands were shaken at 86/2. Azad 29*

Day 2

Another sunny day at Trent Bridge saw Plumtree's new recruit, Hasan Azad, fall one run short of a maiden first class century, batting for much of the day and only sporadically coming out of his determined shell; he eventually fell after 338 minutes of concentrated batting. His departure from the field was warmly applauded and was probably no less in intensity than if it had been one run greater.



Worryingly for Notts, before the new ball was taken, all of the Notts pace bowlers looked ineffectual on the placid surface and all too often opted for the short ball, rather than skill, which gifted easy runs to the students. 

The introduction of Samit Patel, late in the morning session, saw the departure of Anish Patel, LBW 83 then Steven Mullaney either side of lunch accounted for Kumar and Prowse.

Some bludgeoning blows by Mike Burgess (43) was ended when he was emphatically stumped off Patel. Samit Patel then proved too wily for ducklings White and Grant but then we had to wait for the new ball to work its magic before Robert McKinley (39) could be dislodged after which Azad and Gamble soon followed. Loughborough equaling Notts' 308.

Second time around, Notts opened the batting with again Brendan Taylor, who this time was partnered by Riki Wessels. Initially both struggled to time the ball but by the close, both had become fluent scorers and closed on 104/0; Wessels 55* including 2 maximums, BT 49*.



Day 1

On a sunny day at Trent Bridge, the first class season 2015 started for Notts against a Loughborough University side.

Approached to the ground was shrouded in fog but this soon cleared before the toss but left a dewy outfield. Notts won the toss and elected to bat giving Brendan Taylor his debut as opening bat. Taylor lasted just for 9 scratchy runs but his partner for the day, Steven Mullaney, produced some beefy blows as he reached 77* by lunch.

Alex Hales, again batting at 3, reached the 40s before chopping onto own stumps, having looked in reasonable nick. The backdrop to the day was an empty Radcliffe Road stand and a power washing ground staff member “hard” at work in the Fox Road stand, sprucing-up the seating and the concrete floors.

During the lunch interval, International Brendan Taylor was awarded his county cap.

After the break the student showed that they had been studying hard on their fielding, knocking down the stumps with regularity. These feats were rewarded with a couple of run-outs as Notts gave their wickets away too lightly.  Steven Mullaney went on to make his hundred but nobody else stuck around very long; James Taylor did launch a six into the Fridge but this chance of a competitive workout before the Championship game on Sunday was wasted by all except Mull05.

Notts were eventually dismissed for 308 and by the close the students had reached 36/1.

An at times lack of sense in running / calling between the wickets combined with some efficient fielding by the youngsters were the highlights main talking points from Day 1, plus Steven Mullaney booking his place in the starting eleven for Sunday.

 Perhaps Notts will allow their own superiority to show through on Day 2 when Hasan Azad will be in the spotlight from the first over in what might turn out to be an entertaining match and not just a glorified net practice, as last week’s games were.

Preview

Reports on the Nottinghamshire website suggest that the D of C will field a strong eleven to face the students in the first class fixture starting on Tuesday. Brendan Taylor has landed in this country and is expected to make his debut against the students.

Notts have named a four pronged pace attack, all in competition for a starting berth in the weekend's LV championship game, coming up where Vernon Philander is expected to feature.
The four: Jake Ball, Harry Gurney, Luke Fletcher and Will Gidman.

In a fixture against Hampshire at the "Bowl", Loughborough were at the receiving end of a lot of runs, the first class season's 2nd and 3rd centurions resulting (Carberry and Vince). In reply, the students didn't fare too well but Nottinghamshire Academy and 2nd XI's Hasan Azad, making a first class debut, did score 21 in his only innings of the drawn game. 

If Mohammad Hasan Azad plays; it'll perhaps be the most important game in his life to date, "professionally".

The weather forecast is favourable this week so expect a lot of runs again.