CRICKET: Rain frustrates as Notts take lead into final day at Emirates Old Trafford

Specsavers County Championship Division One, Emirates Old Trafford (day three):

Lancashire 158 & 58-2: Jennings 27*

Nottinghamshire 222: Wessels 44; Moores 38; Bailey 3-26; Livingstone 3-27

Lancashire (3 pts) trail Nottinghamshire (4 pts) by six runs

A rain-shortened day at Emirates Old Trafford meant that play was possible in only two of the three sessions.

Nottinghamshire began day three of the Specsavers County Championship match against Lancashire needing a further 32 runs to surpass the hosts first innings total of 158.

The visitors dug in and the tail made a handy contribution – going past the target to gain a 64-run lead.

Riki Wessels and Tom Moores resumed on 18 and nought respectively, knowing that they had a job to do in order to gain a lead over their opponents.

They added a further 67 priceless runs before Wessels was given out LBW to spinner Liam Livingstone for 44.

With a lead of 36, Moores, and new partner Luke Wood, looked to press on and build that lead to put Lancashire in a tricky position .

Rain brought the morning session to a premature end, leading to an early lunch.

The break seemed to work in favour of the home side, as almost immediately after, they got another breakthrough. Dane Vilas took a superb low catch in the slips off the bowling of Livingstone to remove Luke Wood for eight.

Moores and Jake Ball then added a further 10 runs before debutant Joe Mennie took his wicket of the innings, cleaning up Moores for 38. He struck five fours and the only six of the match so far in his knock.

Nottinghamshire soon found themselves all out for 222 after Ball took a huge swing at a ball from Livingstone. He missed it and offered an opportunity for wicketkeeper Alex Davies to take the stumping.

Trailing by 64, openers Haseeb Hameed and Keaton Jennings knew that a substantial partnership was required if they were to have any chance of staying in the game.

The pair put on 49 together before Hameed feathered a Harry Gurney delivery behind for 19.

Davies fell in the same fashion as tea neared, to leave his side 51-2.

Captain Livingstone was the next man in and he struck a boundary in the penultimate over of the session.

A further single was added in the final over before tea.

Rain arrived during the break and the umpires decided at 5.20pm that there was to be no further play in the day.

At the close of play, Mennie explained how he felt nervous ahead of his debut: “You’re always nervous when you come to a new club. You come up against teams that you don’t know much about. You can do all the research and talk to the other players but when you get out there it’s a different scenario.”

The final day of this match will resume tomorrow morning at 11am with the hosts trailing by six runs on 58-2.