A century from England hopeful Jonathan Trott and an unbeaten 92 from Ian Bell helped Warwickshire fight back in their County Championship meeting with Nottinghamshire.

After Charlie Shreck wrapped up Warwickshire's first innings by bowling Boyd Rankin, the visitors to Trent Bridge were asked to follow on, still 169 runs behind.

But Trott and Bell put on 188 for the third wicket - a new club record against Nottinghamshire - to push ahead of the hosts and press their England claims ahead of the final Test at the Oval.

Trott was the more aggressive of the pair and hit 20 fours from 177 balls before he was lbw to Ryan Sidebottom for 121, his fourth hundred of the season, while Bell hit 10 boundaries as Warwickshire finished on 298 for three, 129 ahead.

Warwickshire began the day on 214 for nine and only added five to their total before Shreck uprooted Rankin's leg stump.

Nottinghamshire captain Chris Read enforced the follow-on but an obdurate opening partnership of 53 between Ian Westwood and Ant Botha hinted at a frustrating day for the title-chasing hosts.

Westwood looked hopelessly out of touch but still dug in to face 52 balls before he eventually edged Mark Ealham behind for 11.

That brought Bell to the wicket and after his dismissal by Sidebottom in the first innings, the left-armer was immediately brought back into the attack.

But Botha did a good job of protecting the 27-year-old from facing the home side's premier bowler and allowed the 27-year-old Bell to settle in with a solid on-drive for four off Ealham.

He survived one scare on 14 when Andre Adams was denied a confident lbw shout after lunch, but looked increasingly assured as the afternoon wore on.

Botha sliced Adams to Samit Patel in the gully for 67, his best score for Warwickshire, and Trott was lucky to survive his second ball with an inside edge which narrowly missed the stumps.

But the right-hander remained positive with a series of drives on either side of the wicket to post his fifty from only 39 balls.

Read rotated his bowlers regularly in a bid to upset the batsmen's rhythm but found little joy, with Trott's edge off Samit Patel on 56 representing a half-chance which slip Ali Brown failed to reach.

Trott reached his century after tea by pulling Patel for four.

And it took the new ball for Nottinghamshire to finally break through, with Sidebottom's sharp in-swinger trapping Trott lbw.