Nottinghamshire reached 177 for two on a shortened opening day of their LV= county championship fixture against Yorkshire at Scarborough.
Michael Lumb, who began his career with Yorkshire, ended the day with an unbeaten 116 to his name, with James Taylor not out on 12.
Lumb had shared in a second wicket stand of 102 with Ed Cowan, who scored 47.
The Australian said, “I think we probably came out on top after being inserted on a wicket that was offering good seam movement all day.
“It was overcast in that first two and a half hour session, so it was one of those awkward days where you could probably lose the game, if you were batting first – obviously you can’t win it. You can set up the middle order, which it feels like we’ve done.”
Although Cowan is still to reach three figures for Notts, he played a major role in blunting the home attack.
“I feel as though I’m batting well,” he said. “I’m ticking over nicely and think I’ve played nicely during the last two weeks. I scored runs at Sussex and it’s ball by ball really, just living that moment – unfortunately today I thought I got a decent ball which I pushed at and probably could have left.”
Notts retained the same starting eleven for the first time this season, with the match scheduled to begin just 41 hours after the Sussex fixture at Hove.
As it turned out the players had a little longer to recover from their long journey north with the toss put back until around 11.20am due to light drizzle, which the locals termed a ‘sea fret’.
Andrew Gale invited Notts to bat first but the captains had no sooner left the square when the heavens opened, with real intensity, ruling out the prospects of any play before lunch.
When the action did get underway an old adversary soon had Notts on the back foot. Ryan Sidebottom, seven years a Trent Bridge regular, took only five deliveries to send back Alex Hales.
The opener (0) fractionally pushed at a delivery that nipped across him and he tickled it through to the ‘keeper, Andrew Hodd.
Michael Lumb clipped his first ball away for a couple but Cowan remained on nought until the seventh over as the home side exerted early pressure.
The two left-handers had to overcome accurate bowling and seamer-friendly conditions but they prospered to reach 50 in the 25th over, the milestone brought up by the most attractive shot to that point, as Lumb caressed Rich Pyrah through the covers for four.
Notts closed the afternoon session on 72 for one, after going an hour without hitting a boundary. That all changed upon the resumption as Lumb hit Steven Patterson for four, and then three, to end one over and then hit Moin Ashraf twice to the fence in the next to bring up his 50 (112 balls, 7x4).
That was the third time he had passed the landmark this season and just a few balls later, in the 43rd over, the 100 stand came up.
Only one more run had been added when Cowan (47) fell, edging Patterson low to Garry Ballance at first slip.
The first extra of the innings didn’t materialise until the 57th over and it brought huge frustration as Sidebottom’s no-ball appeared to hit Lumb plumb in front of his stumps.
Undeterred, to his obvious delight, Lumb punched Adil Rashid away to bring up his first century at North Marine Road (187 balls, 13x4), a ground where his father, Richard, scored two for Yorkshire.
Bad light forced the players from the field but after a short stoppage they resumed at 6.25pm.
Virtually every spectator had left, anticipating that the day’s events were finished and the closing few overs were played out with hardly anyone left in the ground.