Klein takes three for battling Foxes

Nottinghamshire versus Leicestershire, Specsavers County Championship, Day 1:

SCORECARD | Available through ESPN Cricinfo HERE 

INTERVIEW | Head Coach Pierre de Bruyn spoke to BBC Radio Leicester's Richard Rae at stumps, the interview is available HERE

HIGHLIGHTS | The highlights of the first day are available HERE

REPORT | Dieter Klein picked up three wickets for Leicestershire but Samit Patel continued his rich vein of form as leaders Nottinghamshire posted 345-4 on the first day of the Specsavers County Championship game at Trent Bridge.

Patel’s previous four innings had yielded scores of 82, 257 not out, 66 and 122 not out, and the 32-year-old added an unbeaten 157 (222b, 17x4, 1x6) to that collection in steering his side into a position of strength.

Leicestershire’s bowlers were largely luckless on a hot day in the East Midlands, epitomised by the fact that leading wicket-taker Ben Raine was forced from the field because of a side injury after bowling just 20 deliveries.

Klein was the star man by taking 3-79 off 21 overs while Clint McKay (22.4-8-58-0) again gave little away as County fought hard with the ball and in the field.

Leicestershire made two changes to the side that lost to Sussex as Lewis Hill and Gavin Griffiths came into the XI for Zak Chappell (groin) and Tom Wells, who is playing for the Second XI at Desborough.

Notts were boosted by the availability of international seamers Stuart Broad, James Pattinson and Jake Ball but the trio were not immediately in the action as Mark Cosgrove exercised Leicestershire's right to bowl first.

The first wicket went down with the score at 21 as Jake Libby (7) got the full face of the bat to a delivery that was heading down the leg-side from Klein, Hill taking a fine diving catch.

Steven Mullaney and Brendan Taylor settled things down with a partnership of 55 during a period where Leicestershire had to contend with an injury to their key all-rounder. Opener Mullaney looked particularly strong in the cover region, striking four of his six boundaries in that region. 

He looked set for a half-century but Griffiths, who became the fourth bowler inside the space of four overs to operate from the Pavilion End given Raine’s setback, removed the batsman for 40 with a terrific delivery that swung in to remove the middle stump.  

Notts launched a counter-attack as Patel ominously drove two of the first three deliveries he faced to the fence through the covers while Taylor also gathered a brace of fours in the following over, the 23rd of the innings. 

Griffiths continued to cause problems and Taylor was nearly dismissed in the lunch over. The former Zimbabwe international tried to block a delivery that seamed away but Griffiths found the outside edge; the ball beat a despairing dive from Harry Dearden at second slip. The result was Taylor’s seventh boundary as Notts went to lunch at 105-2 after 27 overs.

Patel was the main aggressor after lunch, looking comfortable in playing the ball on both sides of the wicket as the alliance with Taylor passed 50. Taylor had a scare at 48 when Hill could not cling on to a low chance off McKay and posted a 104-ball half-century (7x4) a couple of deliveries later.

Leicestershire continued to ask questions and Klein went close to registering the first bowling point with the score at 150. Patel, on 37, edged to Paul Horton at first slip but umpires Paul Pollard and Steve O’Shaughnessy conferred and appeared to indicate that it had been a bump ball.

The left armer did not have to wait too long to claim the third wicket as Taylor (61), who had batted well in his first four-day innings of the campaign, was tempted into an off drive and an outside edge went through to Hill with Notts now at 156-3.

Another period of consolidation followed Taylor’s dismissal as Patel progressed to 50 from 88 balls (6x4) while Lumb offered solid support in a third successive partnership to yield 50. 

Skipper Cosgrove and Colin Ackermann did a steady job in keeping a lid on the run rate in the passage of play leading up to tea, which was taken with the score at 211-3 from 64 overs.

Patel and Lumb had moved their stand to 83 when the left-hander became a third victim of the day for Klein as an attempted cover drive cannoned into the stumps.

Patel moved to three figures from 172 balls (10x4) by collecting three runs off Ackermann, striking ten fours along the way. The batsman put his foot down from that point, taking just a further 44 deliveries to reach 150, adding another six fours as well as a maximum that was nonchalantly flicked into the Fox Stand.

Riki Wessels is normally the aggressor but played the situation to perfection with his teammate in such good nick. In a stand worth 106 by stumps, Wessels had absorbed 84 deliveries in posting 28 not out, including three nicely struck boundaries through extra, mid-off and straight mid-wicket.

But the day belonged to Patel, whose ability to judge the length on a slow surface served him well against seam and spin alike. He recorded a couple of notable career landmarks during proceedings, including 11,000 first-class career runs and 10,000 first-class runs for Notts.

Bowling figures for Leicestershire: Klein 21-1-79-3, McKay 22.4-8-58-0, Raine 3.2-1-5-0, Griffiths 22-2-93-1, Cosgrove 9-0-33-0, Ackermann 18-0-67-0.