MICHAEL Booth took his first career five-wicket haul – but Warwickshire face a battle to avoid defeat against Nottinghamshire at Edgbaston.
After being bowled out for just 93, the Bears ended the third day on 163 for six – that was in response to Notts’ first innings total of 367.
But Booth returned figures of five for 90 to give Warwickshire some hope.
Booth told the county’s official website: “It was nice to take my maiden five-for.
“I felt good out there. It felt like some of my better spells went wicketless, but then I came back late on and got those three at the end. I have felt in good rhythm all game and it’s coming out nicely.
“The more you play the more you understand how to go about it and that sometimes you only get your rewards in your third and fourth spells.
“That’s something I’ve learned, not to go to searching for wickets too much but to keep putting the ball in the right area and eventually to get your rewards.
“Notts have outplayed us so it’s a big day for us on Monday to hopefully hang in there as long as we can and hopefully get past them and keep going.
“We’ve just got to keep scrapping, keep batting and keep believing. The weather forecast doesn’t look good but you can never really trust a forecast. We have just got to come here and bat long.”
Warwickshire may have to rely on the weather to save them as heavy rain is forecast.
Indeed, Notts’ decision to bat quite deep into day three despite the forecast could cost them.
They extended their first innings to 367, Haseeb Hameed carrying his bat for 138 in 399 minutes, supported by Fergus O’Neill (50, 53 balls) and Lyndon James (42, 117).
But after the visitors’ dynamic cricket on the second day, their batting on the third morning was ponderous, achieving little more than robbing their bowlers of time to get stuck into Warwickshire’s second innings.
When those bowlers were finally unleashed they winkled out six on a pitch which is improving for batting.
Notts resumed on the third morning on 204 for five, already 111 ahead, but showed no urgency. Hameed and James added a pedestrian 51 in 21 overs before the latter edged Ed Barnard to slip.
Hameed reached his 16th first class century, from 196 balls, while O’Neill added some impetus by adding a half-century to his five-for the previous day. The Australian’s ninth four, driven through the covers off Booth, took him to 50 but he perished next ball when he skied a slog.
Booth advanced to his five-fer with wickets in successive balls when he bowled Brett Hutton through a cross-bat swipe and had Josh Tongue caught behind.
When Farhan Ahmed nicked Barnard to the keeper, Hameed had carried his bat for the second time in his Nottinghamshire career and become the third player, following Mick Newell and Alex Hales, to do so for the county against Warwickshire
With nine balls left in the day, Kai Smith was bowled by a beauty from O’Neill. Warwickshire will enter the final day needing either a monumental lower-order batting display – or plenty of rain.
