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Patel feasts on luckless Hampshire

	Samit Patel rescued Nottinghamshire's innings with his 11th first-class century © Getty Images Enlarge

Dragging themselves out of difficult situations became almost routine for Nottinghamshire last season, when they won the County Championship in spite of an apparent determination to make things as hard for themselves as possible, usually on account of a perpetually underperforming top order.

It should not have troubled Chris Read unduly, then, to see his side slip to 118 for 5 in reply to Hampshire's 218, even with every possibility, on the face of it, of conceding a substantial first-innings lead. Many of the Notts captain's 916 runs last season were scored in remarkably similar circumstances, as a catalogue of bottom-heavy scorecards will confirm.

It was really no surprise at all, then, that his team closed the day instead with a 75-run advantage, although this was less the direct consequence of Read's own half-century - important though it was - as a day on which Samit Patel managed to combine some clean and powerful hitting with a substantial slice of good luck.

Patel scored 116 off 199 balls with 18 fours and a six (off left-arm spinner Danny Briggs), registering the 11th first-class century of his career. But he was also dropped four times, twice before he had reached double figures, on a day in which Hampshire let seven catching chances go to waste. Seldom can he have been quite so blessed.

Then again, he might argue that he deserves a break. Roundly criticised for failing to reach the required fitness standards, causing his international progress to stall, his career has threatened to become one of potential unfulfilled.

On the fitness front, we are told he is moving in the right direction, having modified his diet and intensified his training, although Nottinghamshire are being strangely coy about divulging any numbers - whether in pounds or kilos - by which to gauge his improvement.

What is not in doubt is his eye for a cricket ball and his ability to hit it to all parts. Having watched their colleagues struggle to cope in conditions that favoured seam and swing, he and Read plainly had a rethink when bad light offered a pause mid-afternoon and their decision to force the pace after restart paid off handsomely in a stand that added 148 in 27 overs.

It transformed a day that might easily have belonged to David Griffiths, who would certainly have been elsewhere had Hampshire not had six bowlers injured. He took his chance magnificently, bowling brilliantly at times, particularly in a morning session when the ball swung appreciably.

Replacing Dominic Cork at first change, Griffiths flattened Paul Franks's middle stump with his first ball, a near perfect inswinger, and then passed the outside of Alex Hales's bat with four of the next five. He had Mark Wagh groping similarly in his next over, then brought one back so sharply it took out leg stump. His first 25 deliveries conceded one run.

Adam Voges had no more of an answer and while it must have left Griffiths feeling a little frustrated as Friedel de Wet and Sean Ervine accounted for Hales, Voges and Ali Brown, his reward came later.

Patel's luck at last expired as Ervine clung on at second slip, then Michael Bates, substituting behind the stumps after Nic Pothas withdrew with a calf strain sustained while batting, held two catches, giving Griffiths a richly deserved five-wicket haul.

In truth, he might have had eight or nine had Hampshire not been so slipshod in the field. Hampshire's spilled catches included three by Neil McKenzie, two by a red-faced captain Cork. Significantly, none of them was by Adeel Shafique, the 17-year-old Nottinghamshire academy wicketkeeper who was allowed to stand in for Pothas until Bates arrived from Southampton and who did his job both confidently and competently.