A maiden century from Luke Wood rescued Nottinghamshire from a perilous position on the opening day of their LV= County Championship match against Sussex at Trent Bridge.
The 19-year-old left-hander, playing just his fifth first class match, made exactly 100 from 96 balls, as the home side reached 255 before being bowled out in 55.3 overs.
At one stage Notts had been reduced to 55 for six before they mounted their resistance against an attack that was led by Steve Magoffin, who finished with figures of six for 109. When Sussex batted they also ran into early difficulties and closed on 39 for three.
Wood admitted it had been an amazing day all-round. “It’s probably the best feeling I’ve ever had on a cricket field. I wouldn’t have thought I’d be anywhere near getting that, especially when we were 30 for four.
“I couldn’t see us getting 200 as a team, let alone me getting a hundred but it’s been pretty phenomenal how it has turned out and to get two wickets at the end has topped it off nicely.
“When I saw them all out on the boundary at the end I just thought my best option was to tuck it away for two and run hard and to get there was an unbelievable feeling.”
The Nottinghamshire side showed a couple of changes from the defeat by Somerset in the last Championship game, with Chris Read absent through injury and Vernon Philander no longer available after being recalled by South Africa.
Alex Hales returned to the fold, after IPL duty and Will Gidman came back into the team. Riki Wessels took over the ‘keeper’s gloves and James Taylor, the captaincy.
Conditions at the start clearly favoured the seam bowlers and in Steve Magoffin and Chris Jordan, Sussex possess two of the finest around to be able to exploit any assistance.
Both struck twice in the opening hour to reduce Notts to 34 for four at the time of a rain interruption.
Brendan Taylor fell lbw to Magoffin for nine in the third over, his sixth consecutive dismissal in that manner. The same bowler also had success by thudding the ball into James Taylor’s pads for a second ball duck.
In between, Jordan showed his athleticism to pounce on a low one-handed caught and bowled offering to remove Steven Mullaney for 11.
Hales made six, before being emphatically bowled by Jordan, who nipped one back to uproot two of the stumps.
After a 25-minute stoppage – long enough for Magoffin to re-charge his batteries – two more wickets fell to the Australian.
Riki Wessels edged behind for seven and Samit Patel clipped a top-edge to Jordan at first slip.
After lunch Notts staged something of a recovery, led by Gidman.
The former Gloucestershire man combined stoic defence with controlled aggression to move to his first half-century in Nottinghamshire colours.
He shared in a stand of 43 with Greg Smith for the seventh wicket, broken by Ollie Robinson who knocked back Smith’s off pole for 14.
Luke Wood then supported Gidman in the highest partnership of the day. Both cashed in on every scoring opportunity, particularly whenever Magoffin was out of the attack.
Gidman’s fifty came from 59 balls via a leg side tickle for four off Robinson, his ninth boundary of the day.
Wood advanced to his highest first-class score by lifting Matt Hobden up and over point for the first six of the match.
His second six, a mighty leg side blow off Magoffin, was from the first ball after tea but he lost Gidman, for 57, later in the same over.
Jake Ball supported Wood in an entertaining stand of 46 in just six overs, with both men clearing the ropes on a couple of occasions.
When Harry Gurney walked to the crease as last man Wood was on 72 but some creative farming of the strike, which twice included a bye from the final ball of an over, enabled the in-form man to face every ball of their 27-ball stand.
With the batsman two runs short of his century Nash turned to the leg spin of Luke Wells and pushed his men out to protect the boundary. A gentle drop on the leg side enabled the two batsmen to sprint through for the couple of runs needed, to scenes of great jubilation on the home dressing room balcony.
Wood had reached the landmark from 95 deliveries, having hit ten fours and six sixes but he’d barely let the applause die down before he’d nicked the next ball through to the wicketkeeper.
Sussex lost three wickets before the close, with Wells, Michael Yardy and Matt Machan all falling – two of them to the man of the day, Luke Wood.
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