Notts look for inspiration again - and Tahir might provide it

Lancashire 273 for 9 (Smith 70, Broad 3-50, Tahir 3-78) vs Nottinghamshire
Scorecard

For the second season in a row, Nottinghamshire are meandering through midsummer at the uncomfortable end of the Division One table, looking like a team in need of inspiration. Last year, after being bottom at the halfway stage, they seemed to be find it in Peter Moores, the former England coach, whose addition to the staff at Trent Bridge coincided with a revival that saw them finish third.

This year, evidently, they need something to spark them again, having won their opening match of the Championship programme against Surrey in April but not one since in an eight-match winless run that began, as it happens, with an eight-wicket defeat by Lancashire at Old Trafford.

Perhaps this time the uplifting factor will be Imran Tahir. Back at Trent Bridge for a second spell after his first, last year, was curtailed early by injury, the South Africa leg-spinner began by conceding 13 runs in his first over, six of them before he had bowled a legitimate delivery, but thereafter produced evidence that the skills that have sustained him through an extraordinary career might be just what Nottinghamshire need, even in a summer as damp and miserable as this one.

Although Lancashire, the Division One leaders, took a chance with the toss and decided to bat first, it was on a surface that had some grass left on and looked dark in colour after more heavy downpours on Saturday, one that surely had Stuart Broad and Harry Gurney licking their lips.

Yet it was Tahir who proved Lancashire's most troublesome opponent, offering few cheap runs, even when he was attacking, and having enough guile to snare two of his three wickets with his googly.

At the heart of his contribution was an engrossing battle with the Lancashire opener, the left-handed Tom Smith, who was 40 from 95 balls as his side reached lunch at 109 for 1 but was thereafter so comprehensively pinned down by Tahir that of the next 46 deliveries he faced from the legspinner he managed to score off just six before he was lured down the pitch and stumped after the ball kicked past the outside edge.

It had been the googly, too, that earlier bowled Luke Procter for 48. In between, Steven Croft was possibly unlucky to be given out leg before after taking a long stride forwards but Tahir's 3 for 78 from 27 overs did not flatter him in any way.

After his 7 for 45 against West Indies in Basseterre, in the process of which he became the fourth fastest bowler to reach 100 wickets in one-day internationals, he has arrived with form and confidence high. Nottinghamshire, who have managed thus far to stay out of the relegation places but have played more of their matches than those around them, will have their fingers crossed that it continues.

Tahir was one of three changes in the Nottinghamshire bowling compared with the rain-affected draw with Warwickshire last week. He replaced the young off-spinner Matt Carter, with Gurney and Broad coming in for Luke Fletcher and Jake Ball, who is being rested after bearing a heavy workload in recent weeks.

Ball, Nottinghamshire's leading wicket-taker, is strongly tipped to make his Test debut against Pakistan at Lord's next week and Mick Newell, wearing both his Nottinghamshire and England hats, wants him to be in peak condition should his chance come.

Broad bowled a fine spell with the new ball without reward and was then rather fortunate after lunch to see Alviro Petersen given out to a legside strangle when he barely appealed. In the last of his four consistently-disciplined spells he held a brilliant return catch from a full-blooded hit to dismiss Jordan Clark before Liam Livingstone took a mighty swing at him towards midwicket and was caught at backward point off a steepling top edge.

There was a scare late on when Neil Wagner ducked into a ball from Harry Gurney and took a blow on the back of the head. Happily, amid obvious concern among the Nottinghamshire players, who summoned help immediately, the New Zealand bowler was able to get to his feet and walk off.

As it happened, he was also out, which seemed somewhat unfair, the ball dropping behind him as he dropped to his haunches and rolling on to the stumps with enough force to dislodge a bail and provide the in-form Gurney with a second wicket he deserved, if not by a route he would have chosen.