By the third morning of the match, Nottinghamshire had restarted their innings on 204 for five. To avoid such a fate, their goal was to make themselves indispensable to the opposition. They built their first innings score to 367, mostly thanks to a special effort from Haseeb Hameed. Hameed batted for 399 minutes, carrying his bat for a fantastic 138 runs, recording his 16th first-class century.
Fergus O’Neill and Lyndon James made significant contributions to Nottinghamshire’s innings, with O’Neill scoring 50 off 53 balls. Still, for all the good work from these contributors, Nottinghamshire showed an alarming lack of urgency on the third morning. Their snail’s pace sparked fears they were stealing their bowlers of vital time as the Test wore on.
The innings allowed Michael Booth to make his mark for the opposition, he took five wickets for 90 runs. This performance was Booth’s first maiden first-class five-for and displayed his potential to be one of Kent’s main men in matches to come. In the field, Kyle Berreynne’s brilliant sharp fielding was key for Nottinghamshire, as he went on to take some of the key catches of the innings.
The opposition had no answer as Alex Davies slashed a wide delivery from Brett Hutton to third slip. Kai Smith was denied by a spectacular save from Fergus O’Neill. It rankled the player so much that it clean-bowled him and increased the pressure of the dismissive batting team.
Nottinghamshire batted well into day three. This strategy generated concern over what its impact would be. With O’Neill and James’ support, Hameed’s century helped raise his team to nearly 300 points. Making it longer could be what ends up costing them enough time to lose the chance at a win.
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