Plunkett sets it up

posted by John Winn

Virgin and Northern trains bore me to Nottingham yesterday, a couple of minutes too late to see Alex Lees add just one to his overnight score before departing for 92. Gale and Rashid then added a fairly cautious 43 against Bird, Broad and Gurney. The introduction of Monday's hero, Jake Ball, into the attack, and it came as something of a surprise that it was almost noon before he appeared at The Radcliffe Road End, accounted for the Yorkshire skipper almost immediately. Enter Plunkett who lit up the hour until lunch (jam sponge and custard) with a run a ball fifty including a six over long on off Broad, how he must have enjoyed that, Plunkett not Broad, and 34 came off 40 balls.

The replacement of Broad with Patel caused Rashid, who had been content to leave the heavy lifting to Plunkett, to have a rush of blood and he holed out off the spinner's first ball to Ball at mid-wicket. Willey helped Plunkett take Yorkshire into the lead and at lunch, 279 for 8, it was contentment all round. Three seasoned Notts' supporters behind me felt four wickets a good return for their morning's work, and Yorkshire could be happy with a first innings lead after being 24 for 3 early on Monday.

Patterson fell in the second over after lunch and Plunkett was out first ball after acknowledging his fifty. A lead of 29 soon looked a bit more useful when Willey had Mullaney, who has been in excellent form this season, lbw in the first over and until bad light brought tea three overs before scheduled it was tough for Notts as the Yorkshire seam quartet pinned them down. Hales, under the eye of England selector James Whitaker, stuck it out while Smith, Lumb and Wessells all went cheaply but a 'worm burner' from Brooks finally accounted for Hales
 when the lead was 46. A good stand between Patel and Read extended this to 122 by the close, a position from which Yorkshire will be favourites to win today. Just a note of caution, however, this match has bucked the trend of high scores round the country, exactly a 1000 runs at The Oval and the second innings not closed yet, and Yorkshire will be very keen to break the Patel Read partnership this morning if they are not to chase an awkward score after lunch.