Leicestershire v Nottinghamshire, day three:
Leicestershire 222 (Trego 3-46) and 143-3, Nottinghamshire 343-8dec (Hameed 87, Slater 86).
Momentum. It’s a frequently-cited factor at the highest level of professional sport.
When two sides clash, no matter their relative merits, if either gets on a roll they can be tough to stop.
With Nottinghamshire approaching parity after two days of their clash with Leicestershire – and with a healthy contingent of batsmen still in the hutch – the momentum was all with the visitors.
But with the Met Office issuing a yellow weather warning for the apocalypse on day four, that momentum needed to gather pace. And didn’t Notts know it.
You could see it in the way Ben Duckett scurried for a third run off an early-morning shot that would ordinarily have brought two.
You could hear it in the call, in Lancastrian drawl, from Steven Mullaney to “run hard!” throughout the morning session.
And even those weighing up the purchase of their next washing machine could experience it, after Peter Trego and Lyndon James hoicked maximums into a nearby white goods showroom.
A morning session which brought 122 runs, and saw two balls sail out of the Fischer County Ground, was a statement of intent from Mullaney’s men.
The make-up of Nottinghamshire’s batting line-up permits plenty of lower-order hitting – and so it proved once again.
Safe in the knowledge that there was sufficient batting to come, Duckett, Mullaney and Samit Patel turned ones into twos, twos into threes, and peppered the boundary with regularity.
Then came Trego and James: a partnership of batsmen with contrasting styles, but who produced equally effective results.
The muscular, tattooed Trego scythed through the off-side. The more svelte James clipped off his pads. Both, however, would heave Tom Taylor into the terraced streets which surround the County Ground.
Their half-century stand was ended on the stroke of lunch, and with the interval came the declaration.
121 was the lead, and with Tuesday’s weather radar looking increasingly ominous, Notts would have to keep their feet firmly to the floor to stay in the hunt.
Barely six overs had been completed before Trego induced an edge from Hassan Azad. Body of a 21-year-old, bladder of a man somewhat older, the all-rounder sprinted, arms aloft, for an immediate celebratory comfort break.
And as the afternoon unfolded – as Notts deprived the hosts of run-scoring opportunities with maiden after maiden – the pressure only intensified.
The applause and encouragement from substitute fielder Sol Budinger could probably be heard from Leicester’s cathedrals to football and rugby a mile or so to the north.
The hearty howls that accompanied every half-chance only became louder as Mullaney rapped the pads of Harry Dearden, sending the left-hander packing for 16.
Nottinghamshire voices continued to resound around the outfield as afternoon turned to evening, but Evans and Ackermann withstood the heat in the pressure cooker.
Until, that is, a moment of elastic-limbed fielding at short leg from Haseeb Hameed saw off Evans two runs short of his half-century.
It was a welcome fillip late in the day - albeit one Mullaney would have hoped would trigger something of a collapse.
Momentum, however, can be a funny thing.
One ball, one breakthrough, and the game can shift forwards once more at breakneck speed.
Notts will proceed back down the M1 tomorrow morning hoping for such a change of fortune. The only question is: will the weather permit them the opportunity?
*******
When it comes to sharing the action from Trent Bridge this summer, our multi-camera live stream has got you covered. Watch live...