Hoggard takes five

Date: Tuesday 06 April 2010

Matthew Hoggard enjoyed a profitable day as Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire gained some useful time in the middle as they prepare to tackle the start of the new season proper later this week.

Hoggard took 5-31 from various spells throughout the day, with the Notts scorecard having a strange look to it at 366-15 in effect by stumps.

Still, it was all good practice. After playing a 40-over game yesterday, the teams started a two-day match at Trent Bridge today. The format was each side batting for a full day and the weather kept fine to allow County to send down their 96 overs.

Both teams named an interchangeable squad for the day, with players rotating on and off the field and batsmen able to have another innings later in the day despite being dismissed.

Hoggard was the pick of the attack, Wayne White bowled well to take a three-for while AJ Harris and Claude Henderson took a brace apiece.

Jigar Naik also claimed a wicket and two home batsmen retired out. For Notts, Neil Edwards, Chris Read, Mark Wagh and Samit Patel all made half-centuries.

Hoggard and Harris opened the bowling and shaped the ball nicely. The duo struck immediate blows in their initial bursts; Hoggard trapped Alex Hales leg-before and Wagh dragged Harris onto his stumps.

It was good to see the duo bowling well in tandem and posing plenty of questions. The ball was swinging around and there was a bit of lift too.

Opener Edwards weathered the storm and settled in patiently though. A nice cover drive took him into double figures and a similar stroke also raced to the boundary.

Hoggard decided it was time for a change and Nadeem Malik made a welcome return from injury and Sam Cliff also came on first change.

Malik moved the ball away and started with two maidens while Cliff extracted some bounce from the surface.

Cliff’s natural inward movement to the right hander caused Bilal Shafayat a few problems. However, Shafayat grafted while Edwards, who played some neat strokes through cover and mid on, entrenched himself at the wicket.

The duo bought up their half-century stand in the 19th over with Edwards the predominant contributor. While he was going about his work, the sun made its first appearance of the new campaign - and a welcome one at that!

Hoggard continue to rotate the attack and Nathan Buck and White were the next two bowlers to operate.

Buck bowled beautifully yesterday and had a short initial burst. Leicestershire were probing for a third breakthrough and it came through White.

The all-rounder sent down a short ball and Shafayat fancied clearing the short boundary on the Bridgford Road side of the ground. He only succeeded in picking out Buck at fine leg.

Edwards continued on his way and brought up his 50 from 68 balls with his tenth four through mid on.

White beat the bat with regularity and was proving a handful from the Radcliffe Road end. Matthew Wood provided a respite with a flowing drive through extra.

At lunch, the score was 105-3 and Joel Pope, Paul Nixon and Henderson entered the field for Tom New, Buck and Cliff after the interval.

Henderson nearly induced the fourth wicket when Edwards skied a drive miles high into the sky. Hoggard couldn’t cling on at mid-on.

Edwards launched into an off drive and it looked as though County might pay for missing the opportunity but Harris struck to end his stay. The seamer nipped one through the gate to bowl the tall left-hander.

Samit Patel came in and Henderson then got his deserved wicket as he shot one through to bowl Wood. The team made another change as Naik came on for Harris and Notts sent Hales back to the wicket when Wood was dismissed.

Hoggard claimed the sixth wicket of the day when getting one through Patel’s defences and in came Read.

Hales found the ropes with a pull for four and then took on the spinner. The young batter advanced down the track and lofted a lovely stroke down the ground.

Read was also in aggressive mode and pulled the returning White to the mid-wicket ropes. He also cut strongly to the boundary before helping one round the corner.

The tempo was being raised and Hales found the short legside boundary with a swept six. However, the bowler had his revenge when Hales was enticed to drive loosely to Naik at mid-off.

Wagh became the second batsman to revisit the wicket and Read continued on his way with a lofted six over mid-wicket. The talented batsman was also striking drives cleanly.

While Read was free-flowing, Wagh had been stuck on one for a good while but broke the shackles by lofting a straight boundary.

There was a change in bowling as Naik came into the attack to replace Henderson for his first spell of the match.

Read and Wagh took their stand past fifty and the ‘keeper bought up his half-century just before tea from 64 balls with his seventh four; he also scored a maximum in the process.

Read unselfishly retired his first knock to allow some of his other charges to come back for a second innings. Shafayat was the next batsman to benefit and Wagh was now looking his fluent self and took ten from one particular over.

Young Buck had been sparingly used to that point but got into a real groove in his second spell.

Shafayat was fortunate to survive his fifth over; after flashing an in-ducker narrowly past his stumps, he then played and missed at two lovely away swingers.

It was good, intelligent variation from the seamer who also caused Wagh problems. He beat the batsman on both sides but Wagh responded well with a superbly controlled pull in the next over.

Both Wagh and Shafayat were determined to be positive. Shafayat nearly paid for the same discretion that had earlier cost his wicket, but the ball was just out of Naik’s grasp on the short fine leg boundary; the fielder tipped it over the bar for six.

Wagh then reached his fifty from the 84th ball faced. He reached the milestone with his ninth four and hit a six into the bargain.

He then promptly retired his second dig and Steven Mullaney – who batted extremely well in Monday’s game – came in.

The batsman dealt in boundaries early on and Shafayat then moved past his half-century from sixty balls before being trapped leg-before by Naik from the very next delivery.

Samit Patel came back in to face the new ball, which was taken immediately. Malik sent down a cracking comeback over and White returned to the fray from the Pavilion End.

The new cherry was a useful challenge for both parties and Malik beat Mullaney’s edge both inside and out.

White also bowled well and forced Patel to nick. Pope parried the chance and Will Jefferson scooped the rebound.

That bought Samit’s brother Akhil in and he looked fortunate to survive a huge leg-before shout from White. He wasn’t so lucky next time around as an inswinger claimed him in the same method.

Buck and Hoggard returned to finish off the day and Mullaney and Luke Fletcher had the task of staving off the threatening duo.

They couldn’t manage it as Hoggard struck twice in two balls. Fletcher fended the bowler to second slip where Jefferson took the catch and Akhil Patel then returned and again fell leg-before.

Fletcher returned to give White a catch at mid-wicket and become Hoggard’s fifth wicket – and that bought proceedings to a close.