MICK Newell knows how his side bat today could well make or break their County Championship title hopes.

Notts need a victory of any kind to see off the challenge of rivals Somerset and Durham in the race for the four-day crown.

At the close of day one, they had reduced the visitors to 199-9 having asked them to bat first.

Director of cricket Newell knows it is now imperative to follow up that good work with plenty of runs.

"The key thing now has got to be that we do well with the bat and put pressure on their second innings," he said.

"If we can get in a position where they can no longer win the Championship [Hampshire still have an outside chance] it will be interesting to see how they react.

"The way the scores are looking in the other games I can't see there being any draws.

"That makes it crucial that we win this match."

Newell admitted it was a difficult call to decide what best to do on winning the toss.

He said: "I don't think there is a lot of sideways movement, from seam or swing, although I think the batsmen were hoping for more bounce.

"We just tried to keep their scoring rate down and we did. We still think the best days to bat on here are the second and third day and the bowlers still get something on the first day.

"Charlie [Shreck] and [Pattinson] Darren didn't threaten early on but the captain reacted quickly and we chipped away at them and the opening lads came back later.

"The wicket of [Nic] Pothas was important and so was that of [Dmitri] Mascarenhas near the end.

"The main thing was we kept control and they only scored at two an over all day."