Joey Evison shone with five wickets on day one of the Second XI’s return to red ball action against Lancashire as wickets tumbled at Southport & Birkdale Cricket Club, before the match was abandoned on the morning of day two.
The England u19 international snared the pivotal wicket of the set batsmen George Lavelle having already dismissed opener Taylor Cornell, before causing further damage to the Lancashire lower order to finish with five for 43 from his 16.3 overs.
On the morning of the second day, however, Lancashire confirmed that the fixture had been abandoned due to a positive COVID-19 test recorded by a member of their squad.
Having won the toss, Owais Shah and Cornell set out positively for the hosts before Zak Chappell got the breakthrough in the eighth over, tempting the former into a drive well wide of his stumps that the left-hander squirted to Evison at point.
Evison then penned his name into the wickets’ column 12 overs later when he swung a delivery back into the pads of Cornell (20), to leave the home side on 69 for the loss of two, and it didn’t take long for Notts to get their third, Tom Barber inducing an edge from Balderson through to Matthew Montgomery at slip with 23 overs gone.
It brought George Bell together with Lavelle, and the pair enjoyed a lengthy, if not run-laden, partnership, adding 72 in 28 overs before Notts struck on three occasions.
Liam Patterson-White got the first wicket, that of Bell, by tempting the right hander to drive at a ball he could only edge through to Montgomery for 24.
Evison got his second 16 balls later with a short ball that Lavelle could only cut powerlessly to Hameed for an impressive 80, before the right-armer got his third with a tighter line to JJ Fielding who nicked to Montgomery for his third catch.
Two clusters of wickets brought the end for Lancashire, but not before a competitive total had been posted.
Sam Perry partnered Liam Hurt to take the score north of 200 before James Hayes struck twice, first forcing the former to edge to Dane Schadendorf and then trapping Hurt in front two overs later.
Jack Morley and Jack Blatherwick added 39 more before Evison wrapped up his five-wicket haul by tempting an edge from the former Notts man and dismissing Morley leg-before-wicket with Lancashire posting 263 all out.
With half an hour in fading light left for play, the home side were able to snare two Nottinghamshire wickets of their own before the conclusion, Hurt first inducing a nick from Ben Slater which Cornell snaffled, and then eliciting some sharp bounce from the pitch to catch the shoulder of Haseeb Hammeed’s bat, through to Perry in the cordon.