Notts face uncomfortable final day

Nottinghamshire could face an uncomfortable final day after getting the worst of a rain-ruined match at Trent Bridge. Sussex ended the third day firmly in control with the pace and accuracy of Chris Jordan breaking through the top order before Monty Panesar made more incursions by the close.

At the start of play both Ed Joyce and Rory Hamilton-Brown had achievable personal objectives: Hamilton-Brown a century and Joyce a double. Both would come to pass. Hamilton-Brown went on to 113 before Luke Fletcher, Nottinghamshire's stand out bowler in the innings, had him caught behind. Joyce went on his merry way though, and brought the innings to its conclusion in explosive style.

When Samit Patel came on at the pavilion end to bowl his first over of the day you could almost hear the sound of Joyce licking his lips as he eyed the short leg side boundary. Sure enough, he hit three sixes over mid wicket, in addition to a 4 and a single. The over yielded 26 runs, Joyce had 23 of them, and when the last 6 took Sussex beyond 500 and Joyce beyond 200, he promptly declared.

Notts made it through seven overs before lunch, though not without discomfort in the case of Riki Wessels. That Steve Magoffin struck him very unpleasantly was made clear over lunch. Wessels tweeted, "That really hurt". The tweet was accompanied by a frightening photograph of a shattered item of protective equipment.

The mood and momentum of the innings shifted when Chris Jordan replaced Magoffin at the Radcliffe Road end to bowl the 14th over of the innings. He was hostile and accurate from the start, and soon had Wessels beaten for pace, his attempted pull spooning up off the top edge to the safe hands of Monty Panesar at mid-on.

Next he skittled Steven Mullaney before unleashing two brutish deliveries which did for Samit Patel and David Hussey. Patel was caught at short leg after an act of justifiable self-protection, and Hussey gloved a bouncer to Matt Prior.

Not so long ago James Taylor was playing in England's Test middle order. He is only a year older than Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root, but seems to have been around longer.

He demonstrated the skills and application that saw him selected for his country. He was busy and, as so often, particularly effective on the back foot and through the leg sideBy the close, he had made 81 not out with eight boundaries, and in doing so passed 6000 first class runs.

His captain Chris Read provided pugnacious support until Panesar bowled him with one that turned. Paul Franks followed in Panesar's next over, offering a bat pad catch to Rogers, leaving it all to for Notts on the final day to avoid having to follow on.