Jefferson's stand gives Essex edge

Nottinghamshire 341 & 280 Essex 282 & 129

The long and the short of it was that the first half of the day belonged to Nottinghamshire's 5ft 7in batsman Bilal Shafayat while the late afternoon was all Will Jefferson's, Essex's 6ft 10in opener, as he endeavoured to provide a solid foundation in the chase for the 340 runs required to earn victory and the Second Division Championship.

The taller of the two edged it in the honours stakes by one run as he compiled a nerveless, unbeaten 71 in difficult and deteriorating conditions which eventually resulted in a premature close due to bad light.

By then, Jefferson was well into his stride, getting onto the front foot whenever he could, driving the leg-spinner Stuart MacGill with aplomb. The opener had shared in a 50-run partnership with Darren Robinson before Paul Franks found the latter's inside edge.

John Stephenson did not last too long, but his departure brought out Mark Waugh and the Australian Test batsman dealt firmly with everything that Greg Smith, AJ Harris et al could pepper him with.

He was content to push and pull the odd boundary and by stumps had contributed a solid 29 to a stand of 69 off a dozen overs, enough to give Essex the edge in the title stakes.

The slight figure of Nottinghamshire's Shafayat had earlier dominated proceedings as they piled up a respectable target for Essex to aim at. The 18-year-old revealed an array of strokes all around the wicket to underline his burgeoning talent.

It was a pity that one or two of his team-mates were unable to emulate him and hang around long enough to build something more substantial. Shafayat showed patience as he picked off the bad balls and worked his way to fifty. He did forge one decent partnership, adding 87 in just 21 overs for the eighth wicket with Paul Franks, but when the latter fell to a fine left-handed catch by the acting Essex captain Paul Grayson at mid-off Shafayat did not last much longer. He was next out playing down the wrong line to a Jon Dakin delivery which knocked out his leg stump.

The morning also marked the final appearance of Nottinghamshire's Paul Johnson as a batsman. His walk to the crease was accompanied by a standing ovation and he received sympathetic applause 25 minutes later when he failed to get out of the way of a steepler from Graham Napier which ended up in James Foster's gloves.

It was a disappointing end to a distinguished 22-year career in which Johnson amassed 20,256 first-class runs making him the county's 10th highest run-scorer.