Nottinghamshire suffered their fiest defeat of the season at the hands of Middlesex, thanks to strong batting partnerships and an excellent bowling display from Steven Finn and Tim Murtagh.
Nottinghamshire’s Director of Cricket Mick Newell felt his side's efforts to derail Middlesex’s second innings were set back with an injury to Chris Read, who was unable to keep wicket after hurting his shoulder.
“The captain is struggling, he couldn’t keep wicket,” Newell told BBC Radio Nottingham.
“He has quite a nasty shoulder injury from a dive in the first innings. He was struggling so once he nicked off there was a feeling that they’d need to make runs as well as well as bat for some time.
“Riki was looking to score some runs because he’s batting with the tail. If anyone is going to make a big score it has to be him.”
“We outplayed Lancashire for the most part last week, this week we’ve come a cropper. That’s what makes this such an interesting competition.”
Newell also confirmed that he had an interview with the ECB for the vacant England Head Coach position. With his intention to apply for the post public knowledge, he is expecting Andy Flowers’ successor to be named as soon as possible.
The longest-serving coach in county cricket, Newell took over his position from Clive Rice in 2002, leading Nottinghamshire to two County Championship victories, as well as success in last year’s Yorkshire Bank 40 competition.
“We’re all aware of that at the club, we’ve made some plans and had some thoughts as to what might happen but that’s going to be reliant on what happens with the ECB,” he said to the BBC.
“You’d expect that person to be in post over the next two to three weeks.
“In three or four years time I’ll be in my early to mid fifties and there will be a new generation of coaches who will come through.
“From my perspective I feel that this is my opportunity and that’s why I put my application in.”