Ball clocks up the miles on the England beat

Hampshire 106 for 4 v Nottinghamshire
Scorecard

The county summer is entering that period when players jump from one format to another, from one side of the country to another, via coach or carpool. Dubbed "silly season" by some, the next 30 days sees the NatWest T20 Blast and the Royal London Cup fight for schedule space with the County Championship which will take a two weeks hiatus at the beginning of June.

Nottinghamshire, for example, played a Friday night T20 in Birmingham before coming down to the Ageas Bowl for their four-day tussle with Hampshire. Jake Ball, however, has notched a few more miles on the clock.

Released from his maiden England squad after day two of the first Test, Ball was given permission to play in the first two days of this match, at which point he will make his way from Southampton to Durham (he is expected to be replaced in the Notts side for Brett Hutton). The roundtrip, from Test to Test, will be 576 miles.

Even then, all that travelling might only result in a second "thanks but no thanks" in the space of a week. Still, as a Test hopeful, he is more than happy to do it all again and make The Proclaimers look like slackers in the process.

On today's evidence, it looked like he took plenty of breaks on the way down - maybe even a few dynamic stretches at Winchester Services to get going before the Ageas came in view.

Bounding in from the Pavilion End like a returning hero charging back through the city gates, his opening delivery - the very first of the match - beat Michael Carberry's outside edge. Two balls later, that same edge was found only for Chris Read to drop the chance, diving full stretch to his left. Only in hindsight can you say it could have been left to first slip, such was the movement of the ball in the last few feet before it clanged into Read's gloves.

Ball would eventually get his man, changing his angle from around the wicket and enticing a drive from Carberry, who had reeled himself in for 19 off 58 deliveries up until that point. He had the number of both of the hosts' opening southpaws. One of the more noticeable aspects of Ball's game is his ability to move the ball away and into a left-hander, from both around and over the wicket.

Jimmy Adams in particular was caused a great deal of discomfort: when he wasn't playing and missing on a spicy track, he was taking all sorts of blows to the glove and torso. His innings of 30 from 79 deliveries was reminiscent of the opening scene of Robocop.

Hampshire, sitting bottom of Division One, have been ravaged by injuries and had to dip into the free agency and Kolpak markets. Two of their walking wounded, Reece Topley and Chris Wood, used the delay of the late afternoon downpour to check out the new media centre.

They would be mistaken for thinking it was safer haven for staff up there: even the club's press officer is facing a period on the sidelines having worn a yorker on the toe in a local league match. Somewhere beneath the Ageas Bowl sits an ancient Indian burial ground filled with deceased black cats.

Sean Ervine, too, was sent limping to square leg after jabbing a Harry Gurney yorker onto the top of his foot. His pre-lunch walk to the crease was instigated by a fine spell by Luke Fletcher, who was rewarded by his persistence with the wickets of Adams (caught and bowled) and Liam Dawson (lbw, walking across his stumps) in successive balls.

However, for all the feeling of an innings collapse, the rain delays - the first seeing no play at all in the afternoon session, the second breaking up a long evening - and an unbeaten partnership of 65 between Ervine and 20-year-old Tom Alsop sees Hampshire in a healthier state. Ervine got by on experience and, when dropped on 26 by Dan Christian at third slip off Gurney, compounded Notts' misery by smashing a four through point the very next ball.

By contrast, Alsop played with the freedom of a youngster coming in at number six: punching straight and square of the wicket for a relatively sprightly 32. Early on in his innings, he nearly rearranged Ball's teeth with an uppish drive down the ground for two. As much as those at the ECB rate the Mansfield-born quick, he might have had trouble claiming a trip to the dentist as part of his fuel allowance.