We must take opportunity - Newell

Nottinghamshire coach Mick Newell wants his side to be ruthless against Hampshire

Nottinghamshire coach Mick Newell has challenged the LV County Championship Division One title hopefuls to seize their chance against Hampshire today.

Although they went into the final round of matches with an eight-point lead at the top, Notts have relinquished their advantage in the match and Hampshire began the third day in the ascendancy at Trent Bridge.

Nottinghamshire have already fallen at the final hurdle in one competition, losing four of their final five matches to be edged out by Sussex for the NatWest Pro40 crown.

Hampshire resumed this morning on 102 for one, an overall advantage of 94 runs.

“We have had some chances this year in different competitions,” said Newell. “I am not sure we bottled it, that might be a little bit harsh, as we have another opportunity to win a trophy.

“But what we haven’t done over the last year is put these matches away. We still have a chance to put this match away and if people want to say that after this match, if we lose or don’t win the championship, fair enough.”

Nottinghamshire lost their final seven wickets for just 39 runs yesterday as Hampshire’s Pakistan leg-spinner Imran Tahir ran through the middle order.

They had been charging towards batting points at 172 for three but in the end scraped just one thanks to Ashwell Prince.

He and Samit Patel, who struck a majestic 70, shared 116 in just 24 overs but for once, after they were parted, the lower middle-order slumped.

“Four out of the top five have made scores but nobody has made a big score and that is disappointing,” said Newell.

Leg-spinner Imran Tahir will pose a very severe threat in the game's final innings

“What our six, seven, eight, nine have done this year has become very important because we haven’t batted well enough but today they didn’t come off and you cannot expect them to keep doing it.

“Those guys are not used to facing that quality of wrist spin and the batters have got to say they should have taken us to a lead of 100-150 which would have put a completely different complexion on the game.”

Nottinghamshire must now hope to restrict their opponents to a lead of around 250 in their bid to pip Durham and Somerset.

But Newell warned: “If we are going to expose our middle and lower order to that quality of spin bowling it is going to be really tough.

“If our top-order batsmen can deal with Tahir then we have a chance but if he is bowling at our lower order with a lot of runs to get then we’re stuffed.”

Tahir celebrated signing a new two-year deal by taking his championship haul to 40 in just his seventh match of the season.

And he appears set for an opportunity to add further victims in the final innings of Hampshire’s season.

“I look forward to it because if it does start turning more it’s good for me,” said Tahir, who profited from the use of the googly.

“I have been doing quite a lot of work on my other deliveries and hope to get better.”