Harry Gurney and the Nottinghamshire bowling attack were left well pleased with their work after putting the Specsavers Division Two table-toppers on the cusp of victory over Kent.
At the end of day three of the day-night game at Trent Bridge, the visitors reached 214-7 in their second innings after rain prevented play getting underway until 5.45pm.
Kent lead by just 23 runs with Peter Moores’ side still to bat again and are likely to be without the services of batsman Darren Stevens, who was forced to retire hurt after being struck by a Gurney bouncer.
The hosts will hope to clinch victory early on the fourth day and Gurney said: “We’d have loved to get it wrapped up tonight, but you can’t have it your own way all the time.
“I think the forecast is OK for tomorrow, so we’ll hope to come back and finish it off. At one point the forecast and radars were looking a little bit ropey for today, but we managed to chip away at it.
“It was a slightly frustrating (sixth wicket) partnership building at first, but the yorker Patto (James Pattinson) bowled to get rid of Joe Weatherley was unbelievable. We just need two more now.”
Gurney says a sixth four-day success of the season would be the perfect way to go into Saturday’s Royal London One-Day Cup final against Surrey at Lord’s.
He added: “If we manage to finish this off, it puts us in quite a strong position in the division and puts quite a lot of daylight between us and Kent.
“It means we would finish this run of County Championship games on a real high and go to Lord’s in good spirits.”
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