Durham face a tough final day battle after Notts consolidate their advantage
Nottinghamshire batted until tea on day three of their Rothesay County Championship Division One match against Durham at Trent Bridge. They finished their first innings with a commanding 201 run lead thanks partly to their lower-order building partnerships around Lyndon James. Their bowlers then took three wickets in the session after tea to leave the home team in a strong position going into day four.
In a similar fashion to yesterday, Durham didn’t bowl particularly badly, and Notts never batted like they were running away with things. Wickets were hard to come by; despite signs of uneven bounce the Notts batters got stuck into their task. 81 runs behind at the start of play, and although Farhan Ahmend fell early for 17 to Matthew Potts, who would take two more wickets in the day to finish on four for 112, Notts’ seventh wicket partnership put them in front for the first time in the game.
Matthew Montgomery was joined by James, and they built a stand of 118 from 173 balls. The plan was clear: keep Durham in the field for as long as possible and ensure they aren’t in a position to lose the game. They didn’t want a repeat of their opening match of last season when they were skittled out for 80 against Essex in a game they should never have lost.
The bowlers did enough to keep the batters honest, but the batting from Notts was workmanlike. It was not overly flashy, but they used the short boundary when the opportunity presented. Montgomery was watchful and patient, his 75 taking 146 balls with eleven fours, and he would probably have still batted late into the day were it not for an almost unplayable over from Potts.
With injuries to several of England’s fast bowling stock, Potts must feel that he could play his way into the England set-up with a good start to the season. With the second ball of the 123rd over, he ripped out Montgomery’s middle stump, and the next ball pinned Fergus O’Neill lbw to a delivery that didn’t get up.
It could have been the start of a Durham comeback, but the last two wickets added 142 runs, including a ninth-wicket stand of 95 between James and Josh Tongue. 55of those runs came from the number ten, Tongue scoring his first half-century in the process, his highest score before today being the 45 not out he scored for Worcestershire against his current team, Notts.
When Tongue was lbw to Will Rhodes, James was still six runs short of making his fifth hundred for Notts. With Dillon Pennington to keep him company, James started to move through the gears and, with an extra half an hour until the tea break, ensured that not only he reached his personal milestone but Notts finished with a lead of 201.
Durham could have been in trouble when they were reduced to 29 for two as O’Neill continued to enjoy his Notts debut with the ball. He first took care of Alex Lees for 17 with a delivery that hit him on the back leg, and the umpire had little hesitation in giving him out. Two balls later, Emilio Gay was gone for a pair.
Ben McKinney and Colin Ackermann rebuilt the innings before McKinney edged Tongue through to keeper Joe Clarke for 37. Durham were still 101 runs behind at that point with less than seven overs of the day’s play left. This left new batter, Ollie Robinson and Ackermann a potentially tricky period to see out.
Ackermann, who scored 116 in the first innings, was again finding the runs easy to come by, getting to 40 at nearly a run a ball before shutting up shop and making sure Durham didn’t lose another wicket before the end of play.
Durham will come back tomorrow on 114 for three, 89 runs behind with seven wickets in hand, and they know they will have to bat well to secure a draw on a pitch that could be tricky to bat on as the day progresses.
