Unbeaten hundreds from David Bedingham and Ned Eckersley capped a dominant day for Durham at Trent Bridge, against a Nottinghamshire side that had brief moments of hinting at a comeback. Durham finished the day with a lead of 396 runs with a day to play. Bedingham was not out on 180, and his partner Eckersley 113 not out.
As in the first innings, Bedingham came to the crease with the score five for two. The Durham lead was 65 runs at that stage. Alex Lees, who had been crucial on day one in blunting the Notts attack, lasted until the second ball of the innings when Fletcher got him to misjudge a delivery on off stump; he was gone without scoring.
In his first game back for Durham Scott Borthwick endured another disappointing innings of one, edging Hutton to Ben Duckett at second slip. Hutton was then responsible for knocking Michael Jones’ off-stump out of the ground, and at 22 for three, Durham were in danger of letting their advantage slip.
Bedingham, who had saved Durham from one batting collapse in the first innings, was determined to be the man to save them all over along with Jack Burnham; they started the rebuild. Together they added 56 for the fourth wicket before Burnham edged behind for 18.
By that stage, Bedingham was on 52 out of a Durham total of 78. On a pitch that was getting the wickets of tentative shots, Bedingham was decisive in defence and attack.
Ned Eckersley settled in with Bedingham, who was on his way to a century from 126 balls and brought up stylishly with a back-foot drive for four. It was Bedingham’s highest score, his first first-class hundred for Durham and his eighth overall.
Eckersley would also reach triple figures from 123 balls. His 17th first-class hundred. The pair helped themselves to a stand of 254 for the fifth wicket, a Durham record against Notts.
Notts’ woes continued, already a bowler down with Jake Ball off the field with a bad back. Brett Hutton joined him after bowling 10.5 overs.
Earlier in the day, Tom Moores was unfortunate to miss out on a century of his own, running out of partners as Notts looked to clear their arrears. Along with Brett Hutton, they started the morning well with the sun out and conditions suited to batting.
Both Hutton and Moores passed their fifties, before Hutton was lbw to Salisbury the ball after reaching the milestone. Fletcher soon came and went, Brydon Carse with an easy lbw decision for the umpire.
Ball came out to bat and Moores hogged the strike, taking no chances on missing out on what would have been his third first-class century. With Moores score on 96, he found himself at the non-strikers end. Ball had no answers to a Carse yorker and was bowled.
Notts were bowled out for 267, giving Durham a lead of 63. In a long evening session, Durham ensured they were in a position that they cannot lose this game. They will go into the morning session tomorrow with the intentions of setting up a well-earned win.
