Carter’s great return worsens Notts’ plight

Nottinghamshire 39 for 1 trail Hampshire319 (Wheater 102, McManus 56, Wood 3-53) by 280 runs Scorecard

Discovering Nottinghamshire hanging around at the wrong end of the First Division is like finding the flash guy with the top-of-the-range BMW drinking in the cheapest pub in town. No matter how much you remind yourself he is loaded you can’t avoid noticing in the corner of your eye the unexpected scrambling for enough change for another bag of pork scratchings.

Nottinghamshire are heading for Twenty20 finals day on Saturday. Among the most glamorous of county cricket’s limited-overs side they finally have a chance to claim a T20 trophy that has long seemed overdue. But four-day cricket is a less endearing story. It is entirely possible they could go to Edgbaston uncomfortably placed at the bottom of the Championship.

Midway through this match, Hampshire lead by 180 with nine second-innings wickets intact, a position made more secure in the final session by Jimmy Adams’ unbeaten 68.”The plan now is bat and bat,” said Liam Dawson. “We’ll look to bat all day and see where it takes us.” They might be bottom but that they have the capacity to grind out a batting day is beyond doubt.

A Hampshire victory would send them above Notts in the table. Such an outcome would not just cause shivers in the East Midlands. Hampshire have long presumed to be relegation fodder and a victory would cause consternation for Surrey, Lancashire and Durham. Suddenly, the First Division relegation outcome would look likely to be contested deep into September.

Quite how Nottinghamshire succumbed for 245, 74 behind on first innings, must have been a mystery for their combative captain, Chris Read, whose counter-attacking, unbeaten 70, full of attractive off-side drives, prevented total calamity. It was Family Fun day at Trent Bridge …

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