By Charles Randall at Trent Bridge
First day of four: Notts (119-3) trail Middx (198) by 79 runs
AN evening cocktail of three wickets in 11 balls by Chris Batt on his championship debut earned Middlesex parity on a second-hand pitch of astonishing pace and bounce at Trent Bridge yesterday.
Both innings took similar directions, with left-arm seam-bowlers crushing promising starts - Chris Tolley's three wickets in seven balls was Nottinghamshire's lunch-time aperitif.
Batt's effort could prove to be the more significant, because his second victim, Tim Robinson, was struck viciously on the thumb before the ball carried to slip.
Batt, 21, a tall Berkshire player who was released by Sussex last year, produced good pace with a fluid, high action which snared a prime first victim in Jason Gallian, caught at gully soon after passing a 64-ball fifty.
Gallian had helped improve on Nottinghamshire's previous best championship opening stand this summer of 28, but Robinson quickly followed, shaking his glove in pain, and Paul Johnson padded up fatally for a duck, much to Middlesex's glee.
With the bat, Batt had been less auspicious, averting a Paul Franks hat-trick with difficulty. By then Middlesex had been surprised by Tolley's guile - and it was a surprise, because the medium-pacer's first spell had achieved little, with one over driven for 14 by Justin Langer on his way to 74.
Day 2: Read ties Middlesex in Notts
By Charles Randall at Trent Bridge
Second day of four: Middx (198 & 0-1) trail Notts (413) by 215 runs
CHRIS READ, 19, hinted at the potential that earned him England A recognition last winter with an impressive 76 yesterday, which should help Nottinghamshire improve their dismal record at Trent Bridge nine defeats out of 10 in all cricket this summer had become a burden.
Mike Gatting, the coach for England's tour to Sri Lanka, must have had mixed feelings at slip as he watched one of his youthful England wicketkeeper/batsmen wiping the floor with the Middlesex bowlers at No 9.
In easing conditions Middlesex were first stunned by some piercing off-drives from Graeme Archer, his fifty taking only 66 balls, and they were then ground down by Usman Afzaal's 73 in 5.75 hours of pushes and deflections.
The quick-footed Read cruised past a maiden fifty and hit 12 fours, one of them a succulent reverse sweep to greet Phil Tufnell's switch to over the wicket. By the time Chris Batt, a left-arm seamer, had taken the sixth wicket of his championship debut Middlesex were on their knees.
Middlesex had one over to bat in the evening, but they lost nightwatchman Richard Johnson to an excellent slip catch off the fourth ball.
Day 3: Middlesex hit by Franks haul
By Charles Randall at Trent Bridge
Third day of four: Notts (413) bt Middx (198 & 123) by an innings & 92 runs
PAUL FRANKS, a prominent all-rounder in England's under-19 World Cup victory last winter, took five wickets in the County Championship for the first time as Nottinghamshire moved off bottom place in style at Trent Bridge yesterday.
England's success in South Africa left Franks with an enhanced reputation and skinned feet from the hard pitches.
He said he had become resigned to his condition, which continued to hamper him, and he had to make a temporary, though triumphal, exit yesterday morning for treatment.
By then the bustling Franks had shot to pieces Middlesex's chances of saving the match in the day's second full over, his two victims in three balls being Mike Gatting, a senior England selector, and Owais Shah, his World Cup captain.
Though not a notable swinger of the ball, he hit the seam at a deceptively brisk pace, using all the help available from the pitch in the morning.
Gatting failed to deal with a kicking, good-length delivery, to be caught at short-leg by Johnson. Shah edged to third slip to complete a pair of silver ducks, and Franks said: ``He's a friend of mine, and I know him well.
``I've got a pretty good chance of getting him out - he likes to feel the bat on ball early on.''
Shah is the type who does not know how difficult cricket is, and he occasionally needs to be reminded. Some people believe this gifted stroke-player of tender years must change to succeed, but it would be a mistake to tamper too much.
Without Mark Ramprakash, Middlesex's batting did look thin, and Justin Langer, their main hope of a long innings, fell leg before to Kevin Evans's first ball, the third bowler to be tried from the Radcliffe Road end in the first hour.
Last season Franks, when 18, became Nottinghamshire's youngest hat-trick taker, and he would have taken another in this match if the umpires had been armed with slow-motion cameras.
Video footage showed that Chris Batt, his would-be third victim on Wednesday, should have been given out lbw.