Haseeb Hameed admitted he was disappointed with Nottinghamshire’s final day defeat to Essex, but maintained the visitors deserved credit for the display which ultimately earned them victory at Trent Bridge.

Sam Cook recorded figures of 6-14 on the final day, including bowling the Green and Golds skipper with a fine delivery. 

That haul took Essex to a 254-run win, a result which belied the state of play throughout the game with the sides evenly matched through the first three days. 

And Hameed believes there are reasons to be optimistic, despite the eventual result. 

“Today has been a tough day, it’s disappointing any time you lose,” the Club Captain said. 

“You have got to give credit where it is due. They maximised conditions and we can take learning from the way they played. A lot of the work was done by their bowlers and fair play to them. 

“There are a lot of positives - Dane Paterson taking five-fer, I think he’s just reached 100 wickets here at Trent Bridge which is a great achievement. 

“Calvin [Harrison] stood up in both innings in difficult conditions, Lyndon [James] bowled really well, Dillon [Pennington] got his first run out and looked good. Joe [Clarke] and Jack [Haynes] had a good partnership and looked really strong together.

“Hopefully we can bring those together to put a result on the board.”

Hameed spoke particularly highly of the performances produced by Pennington and Haynes, First Class debutants number 650 and 651 for the club..

The latter concocted a well made 77 in the first innings, whilst Pennington claimed three wickets in the match. 

“They came with a lot of promise,” Hameed said, “They are very exciting young players who have high ceilings.

“Jack in particular showed how good he is in his innings - he looked really settled. Dillon bowled some really good spells which he will be looking to build on, and both of those performances were exciting for us going forwards.’

On that theme, the 27-year-old believes there is room for him and the team to grow after his first game as Club Captain.  

“There are going to be ups and downs within games and I am getting accustomed to that. There were a number of periods of play which I was really pleased with, and other challenging bits which we had to deal with. 

“There is no time to dwell too much on what has happened. We’ll obviously look at what needs to be addressed

“We have got a quick turnaround between games in the next six or seven weeks. We will reconvene later this week and be ready to go again.”