Expectations not great just yet...
Matt Davies watches a familiar tale this season as Division Two leaders Nottinghamshire dominate
Nottinghamshire’s best start to the Championship for a decade has seen the coaching staff move to play down expectations of a Division Two procession.
The leaders host local rivals Derbyshire today with a record of four wins from five, and four dominant ones at that, after their innings and 50 run demolition of Gloucestershire at Trent Bridge.
Assistant coach Paul Franks says the loss of Stuart Broad for the next two games will test their mettle while he rests, as per England’s orders ahead of the Test summer.
“We’re in good shape to keep playing well,” he said. “We’ve sustained some really good form over five games and nothing more than that.
“We’ll be without Stuart for a couple of games, which we knew in advance.
“Someone else will come into the side and hopefully do well. The good thing is, they’re coming into a side that’s playing well.”
Gloucestershire might be sixth, but they are already 64 points behind second-placed Kent. Their ambitions have to be more modest after failing to test Notts in a game where captain Phil Mustard surprisingly chose to bowl in searing heat under cloudless skies.
Centuries for Cheteshwar Pujara (112) and Michael Lumb (117) took Notts to 430 for 9 declared, before the visitors were dismissed for 149 and 231 with Steven Mullaney (5 for 32) taking his first five-wicket haul in the second innings.
There was a first 50 of the season for Cameron Bancroft and Mustard struck a half century himself, but Gloucestershire were unable to stand firm from the moment Notts produced consistent spells of line and length.
“I’ve just said to our boys that to compete in four-day cricket you’ve got to do two things well,” head coach Richard Dawson said. “You’ve got to be able to put pressure on with the ball and to be able to handle pressure with the bat, when you are up against it
“They did it much better than us and that’s very much as simple as it gets. They never let us off the hook.”
Gloucestershire’s task gets no easier as their next game sees them face the same opponents, this time in Bristol from June 9.