An explosive spell of bowing from Josh Tongue, who finished with figures of 5 for 66 in the afternoon session, finally swung the Rothesay County Championship match at Trent Bridge in favour of the hosts Nottinghamshire, as Durham could not hold on for a draw despite a second century in the game for Colin Ackermann. Notts finally won by eight wickets in the final session of day four.
The game started to dwindle as Durham began to feel they were on the way to a draw. Ackermann occupied the crease for 223 balls in the second innings to compile 124 runs, to add 116 runs in the first innings.
Ollie Robinson departed early, caught at slip by Lyndon James off the bowling of Dillon Pennington for seven to give Notts early hope that they could force the win. When Pennington got a second wicket of the morning, that of the usually obdurate Will Rhodes, Durham sought a partnership to steady things.
It felt slow going as Ackermann was joined by Graham Clarke, as they added 145 for the sixth wicket. It took the pair 190 balls to bring up the century partnership and Notts appeared to be waiting for the new ball to make things happen.
Farhan Ahmed bowled steadily from the Stuart Broad End, while Tongue operated from the Ratcliffe Road End. Neither team was giving anything away and with an over until the new ball was due, Tongue struck, taking four wickets in 12 balls to end all hope of Durham’s resistance. He repeated the trick of taking a wicket with the first and last ball of his next two overs. First, Clarke was bowled and George Drissell lbw at the end of the 80th over. Ben Raine was cleaned up playing down the wrong line with his first ball in the next over, and Tongue was on a hat-trick; he would have to wait until the end of the over before trapping Ackermann in front lbw to end his vigil in the middle.
Matthew Potts was caught and bowled by Fergus O’Neil and Durham’s innings ended on 289, meaning Notts were left with the task of scoring 89 from the final 40 overs of the game.
Notts are not known for doing things the easy way and when Ben Slater was lbw to Matthew Potts for a duck from the eighth ball of the run chase, things could have started to get a little nervy despite the relatively easy target.
Freddie McCann was the second wicket to fall for 15 as he tried to reverse sweep Drissell, caught by Ackermann for 15. Haseeb Hameed was happy to anchor the innings, finishing unbeaten on 40, allowing Joe Clake, who ended 34 not out, to play shots at the other end. Hameed pulled Paul Coughlin for six to the short boundary to a ball that bounced more than he anticipated and the target was reached shortly after.
