Steve Magoffin struck three times in the space of five balls for Worcestershire in the closing stages of the opening day of the Specsavers County Championship match with Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge.
The experienced paceman made a big impact with the second new ball as Nottinghamshire, who at one stage stood on 310-1, ended the day on 336-5 in the day-night fixture being played with pink kookaburra balls.
Worcestershire Head Bowling Coach Alan Richardson praised the “amazing” resilience of the bowlers.
Stand-in Nottinghamshire skipper Chris Nash scored 139 and there were also half centuries for Jake Libby and Samit Patel.
But the visitors attack – without Joe Leach, Josh Tongue and Ed Barnard – stuck to their task all day after opting to bowl via an uncontested toss, with England Under-19 paceman Dillon Pennington making his Championship debut.
Their late bag of wickets was no more than their resilience deserved.
Spinner Ben Twohig, recalled to the side, ended an opening stand of 164 between Nash and Libby.
The latter, who hit 10 fours and a six in his 88 from 170 deliveries, cut Twohig to slip, where Daryl Mitchell took a sharp one-handed catch.
Nash went into the tea break undefeated on 99 but pushed a single to mid on at the start of the final session to reach three figures from 176 deliveries.
He and Patel put on 146 for the second wicket in batsman friendly conditions before Martin Guptill broke the partnership.
The New Zealander had Nash lbw with his off spin – the 11th first class wicket of his career.
The second new ball was taken after 88 overs and Magoffin made an immediate impact.
He bowled Patel and had Billy Root caught behind by keeper Ben Cox from successive deliveries.
Then Magoffin had Ross Taylor smartly caught at slip by Ross Whiteley for a duck to end the day with 3-56 from 19 overs.
Richardson said: “The character and the resilience that the lads have shown has been amazing, to be fair. They probably got their rewards for that later on in the day.
“I think we probably weren’t quite at our best with the ball to start off with and we thought the wicket would do a little bit but it ended u doing very little.
“The Notts guys batted very well but we got our rewards for sticking in there. The guys came off at lunch and tea, still full of spirit and wanting to get back out there but some of the language from the bowlers about the ball was quite colourful.
“It didn’t do as much as we thought it would do.”
