Nottinghamshire are indebted to their battling bowling attack ahead of the third day of their LV= County Championship match against Worcestershire at Trent Bridge. After losing two bowlers to injury in the first day, Nottinghamshire battled to bowl Worcestershire out for 283, a lead of 43, before finishing the day on 115-3.
Director of Cricket Mick Newell reserved special praise for his bowling unit, especially the pairing of Ben Hilfenhaus of Brett Hutton, who bowled a combined 49 overs and claimed seven wickets to ensure Nottinghamshire remained in the hunt ahead of the contest’s third day.
“For Ben Hilfenhaus to bowl the number of overs he did on a hot day was fantastic,” he said.
“He’s only been here three weeks, there were times when Ready was trying to take him off and he wouldn’t come off, so to have a guy that committed is fantastic.
“From a day where people said we folded yesterday, we bounced back really well. With the bat, we’ve got an awful lot still to do, we’re only 70-odd ahead, we need to put an awful lot more runs on the board if we’re going to win the game.
“Brett Hutton has terrific stamina, he’s a very fit boy, he wants to bowl lots of overs - which was fortunate because he needed to today - and the senior players are hugely impressed by him, as they were at Durham.
“He kept running in and, similarly to Hilfenhaus, he didn’t want to be taken off. He has really developed as a cricketer today.
“Amongst some disappointing performances by us, when we’ve brought in Nottinghamshire produced young players, we should be very pleased with what they’ve done.”
Nottinghamshire’s bowlers took to the field of play having lost Luke Fletcher and Andy Carter to injury late in the match’s first day, as well as sibling Matt to a thigh injury sustained last week. While Fletcher is likely to be out of action for a month with a hamstring injury, Carter fought to be strapped up and contributed seven overs, claiming the last wicket to end Worcestershire’s innings on 283.
“Andrew looks like an Egyptian mummy underneath his shirt, he’s got that much strapping on. Fair play to the guy, he was in agony last night. It’s terrific that he gave that effort and wanted to try,” said Newell.
“Whatever happens tomorrow, today we’ve given a performance where three bowlers have battled and were supported well in the field, so nobody can question the commitment.
“Dan Christian is only here to play T20, I think he should have been playing golf, but he came along to sub-field. Little things like that show that people care.
“If he says ‘I really want to bowl’, the physio isn’t going to stop him, although he certainly wasn’t encouraging him.
“He’s going to be out for a while anyway and the view was that the physio could strap him up to a condition where he won’t make it worse.”
If losing Fletcher and Carter wasn’t enough, James Taylor pulled up during the evening session with a hamstring injury. Despite completing the session with the help of Alex Hales as a runner, Newell confirmed that Taylor is likely to miss some cricket moving forward.
“Whatever happens in the game, we’ve got two injured bowlers, we’ve now got a batsman that’s pulled his hamstring,” he said.
“We’ve got eight fit bodies, we’ve given a lot in this game and we’ve got to keep fighting to make sure we can try to win the game, because it won’t be a draw.
“James will have a scan at the end of the match but, the way he was hobbling, I can’t see him being fit for Friday and he’s going to miss some cricket. He will continue to bat in this game, but I don’t think we’ll see him on the field."
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