ANDREW GALE last night described his most difficult day as Yorkshire’s captain as a brilliant David Hussey double ton put Nottinghamshire in complete charge of this LV County Championship match at Headingley.

To coin a good old Australian phrase, the Tykes were put “under the pump” by the Victoria player’s unbeaten 222 off 232 balls yesterday.

Notts, also boosted by 96 from Samit Patel, 57 not out from Paul Franks and 42 from captain Chris Read, posted a massive 497-6 from 112 overs in response to Yorkshire’s first day 178 all out.

The men from Trent Bridge scored 350 in 75 overs after 21 overs were wiped out due to rain yesterday morning.

Yorkshire’s bowling and fielding was ragged throughout, and the records tumbled.

It was Notts’ highest ever innings total against Yorkshire in the history of Championship cricket, Hussey’s innings was their highest individual against Yorkshire – and the fourth wicket stand of 184 between him and Patel was their highest for that wicket against Yorkshire.

To top all of that off, Hussey’s stats against Gale’s county make incredible reading.

He has scored 803 runs in eight innings against them at an average of 133.8. He has scored four hundreds, all at either Headingley or Scarborough.

Gale said: “We knew that the first hour was crucial yesterday.

We needed wickets to stay in the game.

“Bowling wise, we didn’t create any pressure, we bowled both sides of the wicket.

A lot of runs have come through the leg side off Hussey.

“Fair play to him, he played well. His innings was pretty much chanceless. He’s a great player, and I don’t know how he’s not playing Test cricket.”

Hussey hit 26 fours and two sixes, although he did take advantage of two missed chances.

He should have been run out on 93 by a combination of Anthony McGrath and David Wainwright before offering Oliver Hannon Dalby a return catch off his own bowling on 168.

Hussey and Patel scored the bulk of the 180 runs in the afternoon session, the first of the day because play only started at 1.30pm.

Hussey even took 18 off one over from left arm spinner Wainwright.

Only Adil Rashid, Ajmal Shahzad and Steve Patterson struck for Yorkshire, who dropped two catches and misfielded on a number of other occasions.

At least Jacques Rudolph showed the way by taking a one handed stunner to get rid of Patel off the bowling of Rashid.

Patel advanced down the track to crash the ball over the top, but edged the ball high to Rudolph’s right. The South African clung on.

Shahzad had Read caught at point before Patterson bowled Ally Brown, both in the evening session, to ensure Yorkshire picked up a second bowling bonus point for the sixth wicket.

Gale also admitted that he expected to the pitch to deteriorate as the game went on, but instead it has flattened out: “It’s typically Headingley,”

he bemoaned.

If the weather allows two full days of cricket today and tomorrow, Yorkshire are almost certain to lose.

But there is a glimmer of hope if you look at tomorrow’s weather forecast.

And that is what made Read’s decision to bat right the way through to close to accrue a lead of 319 runs a strange one. He may regret not having had 15 overs at Yorkshire last night.

Hussey even refused to rule out the possibility of the visitors batting on this morning.

SCORECARD

Yorkshire v Nottinghamshire
At Headingley Carnegie.
Overnight: Yorkshire 178. Nottinghamshire
147-3 (M J Wood 59).

Nottinghamshire First Innings Close
S R Patel c Rudolph b A U Rashid 96
D J Hussey not out 222
C M Read c Shahzad b Shahzad 42
A D Brown b Patterson 2
P J Franks not out 57
Extras (b5 lb5 w3 pens 0) 13
Total 6 wkts (112 overs) 497
Fall: 1-22 2-52 3-97 4-281 5-395 6-400
To Bat: R J Sidebottom, A R Adams, D J
Pattinson.
Bonus Pts: Yorkshire 0 Nottinghamshire 3
Bowling: Shahzad 19-1-95-1. Patterson
26-3-82-3. Hannon-Dalby 22-1-104-1. A U
Rashid 23-0-104-1. Wainwright 11-1-57-0.
McGrath 10-1-32-0. Lyth 1-0-13-0.