Despite their best efforts in the field Nottinghamshire were unable to force a win on the final day of their LV= county championship match against Sussex at Hove.
Set 381 to win, the home side survived to reach the close at 223 for six.
Ajmal Shahzad collected three of the wickets to fall, giving him six in the match, whilst Samit Patel bowled an unbroken spell of thirty consecutive overs from the Sea End.
"Apart from the first three hours of the match, we acquitted ourselves well." Mick Newell
Although there were obvious frustrations at not getting the full reward for their efforts, Mick Newell was nevertheless pleased with his side’s performance.
“It’s disappointing that we had them five wickets down at tea but only managed to take one more wicket in the final session,” he said. “But over the course of the four days, apart from the first three hours of the match, we acquitted ourselves well.
“There were lots of good performances – and six or seven will think they had a good game, which is pleasing.
“It was a good game on a good pitch and the groundsman deserves a lot of credit as there was consistent pace and bounce in the wicket throughout.”
The main events weren’t delayed unduly by the conclusion of Nottinghamshire’s second innings, although it was another eventful start to the day.
Paul Franks and Harry Gurney were faced with completely different – and understandable fields, as Sussex tried to protect their boundaries against the left-hander.
Gurney had two slices of fortune, skying both James Anyon and Luke Wright – but on both occasions the fielders, Monty Panesar and Rory Hamilton-Brown, were unable to take the offerings.
Franks (78) heaved Wright over the deep midwicket fence for six before chopping the same bowler onto his stumps, leaving Sussex to chase 381 in 89 overs.
It took Notts nine overs to prise the openers apart as Luke Wells (11) pushed firmly at Luke Fletcher and edged through to Chris Read.
Chris Nash and Michael Yardy batted throughout the majority of the session, adding 31 together but the final ball before lunch saw Franks strike for the first time in the match.
Yardy (14) edging the all-rounder and Read collected his second victim of the innings.
The first hour of the afternoon produced only 35 runs as Nash and his captain, Ed Joyce, made their intentions clear.
Patel began his marathon stint with five consecutive maidens and had only conceded eight in 13 when he felt he’d trapped Nash lbw – but umpire David Millns turned down the appeal to the obvious frustration of all of the fielding side.
Nash was on 36 at the time and in the middle of a twelve-over spell where he didn’t score a single run.
Harry Gurney at last conjured up a wicket as Joyce (20) nicked off, to give Read another catch.
At the start of Patel’s 18th over he conceded his first boundary but Nash wasn’t to hang around for much longer.
Shahzad returned to the attack twenty minutes before tea and ended Nash’s three-hour vigil (46) with a hostile delivery which ripped through his defences to send the off stump tumbling.
Three balls later Luke Wright (0) also fell, clipping Shahzad into the hands of Steven Mullaney at midwicket.
Patel had bowled unchanged between lunch and tea to take figures of 21-12-20-0 into the interval.
Rory Hamilton-Brown (23) hooked Shahzad for a maximum shortly after the resumption but he then became the latest to experience the loss of his off stump, to another rapid yorker.
Chris Jordan had a scare early in his innings as Read threw the ball skywards after claiming an edge against Shahzad but umpire Peter Willey wasn’t convinced.
Inside the final hour Patel’s lengthy unbroken spell ended at 30-13-49-0.
The second new ball was taken with just nine overs remaining in the contest but Ben Brown (51 not out) and Jordan 28 (not out) saw it through to the close.