Nottinghamshire Director of Cricket Mick Newell has expressed his disappointment at Nottinghamshire’s LV= County Championship defeat to Somerset at Trent Bridge.
22 wickets fell on a final day punctuated by short rain delays, with a green, competitive wicket offering much for both sides’ seam bowling packs.
“What frustrates me most is that we want to play a type of cricket that this pitch allows you to play,” said Newell.
“It’s a little similar to Durham in terms of the scores during the game but we didn’t play well enough to win the match.”
Somerset’s victory at Trent Bridge came through a protracted three days, with flurries wickets interrupted by spells of rain sweeping over the ground. The visitors enjoyed the better of the first innings exchanges before 22 wickets ended the match with a day still scheduled.
“The main thing for us was to get some pace and carry into the wicket and then we thought we’d have a chance of winning the game, but we didn’t bowl well enough,” said Newell.
“We’re going to have to carry on playing on pitches with bounce in, and carry. And bowl better. That’ll be my message at the end of the game, to play on pitches with pace and bounce.
“If you look at the Yorkshire game, by day four it was pretty flat and a slow wicket. We don’t have a fantastically world class spin bowler so we have to encourage our seam bowlers to help us win matches.
“If we look back on it we’ll have to say we bowled better on the three flat pitches than we have on the two helpful pitches.”
Nottinghamshire are yet to secure an LV= County Championship victory, though there have been positives to take from each of the side’s previous outings. Vernon Philander’s abrasive performance against Somerset was the latest in a string of individual performances thus far in the season.
“We never say in April that we’re going to win the championship, and we never say we’re going to get relegated,” affirmed Newell.
“It’s a nine-team competition that’s going to go all the way until September, and we’re only in May.
“At the moment I’m not considering that we’re in a relegation battle and I’m not considering that we’re in a championship battle, we’re just playing four day cricket, we’re just not playing it very well.”