Adams Notts' key to success

Worcestershire may hope that the cataclysmic weather forecast for Sunday arrives early after sliding to 72 for 6 in the 27 and a half overs possible on day two here. They need another 22 to avoid the follow-on and Nottinghamshire are already into a long tail.

What's more, they are up against a bowler who presents as difficult an opponent as they will face in county cricket and who appears to improve as he gets older.

Andre Adams will be 37 in July yet his last two seasons with Nottinghamshire have been the most productive of his career. He took 68 first-class wickets in 2010 and another 67 last summer. He has 17 in three matches so far this season and it appears to be no coincidence that, after winning their opening two matches, Nottinghamshire were never in the contest against Somerset last week, when Adams was missing with flu.

After a 2.40pm start here - a triumph for the groundstaff after a night and morning of heavy rain - it was Adams who did most of the damage as Worcestershire's attempt to construct a competitive response to Nottinghamshire's 243 rapidly unravelled.

Entering the attack at first change in the 12th over with Worcestershire 19 without loss, he conceded his only boundary with his first ball as Michael Klinger cut him past point and thereafter gave away almost nothing.

Deceptively quick at times off a relatively short run, he gets through his overs at a brisk pace designed not only to save his own energy but to keep batsmen on their toes. Every delivery, moreover, seems to ask a fresh question.

He took his revenge on Klinger with the fourth ball of his fourth over as Klinger, pushing forward, edged to Samit Patel at second slip, and from the first delivery of his eighth over managed to obtain three lbw verdicts in the space of 20 deliveries from umpire Michael Gough, as Daryl Mitchell, Alexei Kervezee and Moeen Ali paid the price for failing to get forward enough against a ball tending to keep low.

The luckless Kervezee, who went second ball, has been out without scoring in three of his last four innings, including twice, embarrassingly, against Oxford MCCU.

It is never healthy to rely too heavily on one player but that Nottinghamshire are pleased that Adams is proving such a consistent servant goes without saying. His contract at Trent Bridge takes him through to the end of next season and his commitment to the county is reflected in a deliberately limited workload over the winter.

Between the end of last season and the beginning of this, for example, he played in only eight matches, six of them Twenty20s, in Bangladesh and New Zealand. Not that it was an unsuccessful winter: he was a member of the Auckland Aces side that won the HRV Cup in his home country, taking three wickets in the final against Canterbury.

His four wickets here were supplemented by one each for Ben Phillips and for Harry Gurney -- two more lbws. Gurney, the quick left-armer, trapped Ben Scott with an inswinger to claim his first Championship wicket since moving from Leicestershire during the close season.