Jack Haynes and Joe Clarke struck half-centuries as Nottinghamshire’s batters gained valuable time in the middle on Day One of their pre-season friendly against Leicestershire at Grace Road.
Clarke made a fluent 91 before retiring, while Haynes added 76, with the duo sharing a stand of 123 for the fourth wicket on a day when the Green and Golds totalled 263.
Put in to bat on a cold morning beneath grey skies, openers Haseeb Hameed and Ben Slater were initially strong against the moving ball, before both were parted within five balls of one another.
With Freddie McCann’s promising innings also cut short by Tom Scriven, who claimed figures of 4/20, it fell to Clarke and Haynes to recover the innings either side of lunch.
They did so effectively, trebling the score and hitting out when necessary, combining for 25 boundaries - of which two were sixes, hit by Clarke off the same Liam Trevaskis over.
Clarke opted to retire out while nine short of his century, while Haynes was removed by Scriven, but by that time, the score had passed 200 and the visitors were in a far healthier position.
Olly Stone helped the tail wag a little, before the introduction of Rishi Patel to the attack saw the final wicket, that of Josh Tongue, fall, thus bringing an end to the first day.