LV= County Championship
The Rose Bowl, Day 2 of 4
Hampshire 1st Innings
300 all out (92.1 overs)
Nottinghamshire 1st Innings
274 for 7 (86.5 overs)

Ali Brown and Steven Mullaney have given Nottinghamshire every chance of establishing a first innings lead against Hampshire having led a solid recovery from 33-4 to close on 274-7.

Kabir Ali removed Edwards (3), Shafayat (2) and Wagh (11) and when Hashim Amla was caught down the leg side by Nic Pothas for five, Notts were in trouble.

But Samit Patel and Ali Brown saw off the new ball in a 70 run partnership before Patel was caught at mid-off bringing in Mullaney who remains unbeaten on 72 having struck nine fours.

“Sometimes you have to give credit to an opposition bowler and I though that Kabir Ali was excellent with the new ball although we didn’t negotiate that as well as we might have done,” said Nottinghamshire Director of Cricket Mick Newell.

“That meant that Samit had to come in early and see off a newer ball than he would have liked but he coped very well with that and built a partnership with Ali that was the foundation for our revival.”

Mullaney was a late addition to the team, and wouldn’t have played if Andre Adams and Luke Fletcher hadn’t have withdrawn with injuries, but Newell has been impressed by the manner in which he has grasped this opportunity.

“Steven joined us because he knew he’d get opportunities here and even though he’s had to wait for an injury to get into the four-day side, knocks like this one won’t harm his chances of staying in the frame,” said Newell.

“The game is finely balanced and I would expect that it will be fairly even after the first innings so how we bowl in the next innings will go a long to determining the most likely result.”

Brown made a patient 81 and in-form all-rounder Paul Franks is intact on 26.