Nottinghamshire 251 for 2 (Duckett 146*, Clarke 74*) lead Durham 294 (Harte 72, Poynter 50, Chappell 4-92) by 43 runs
A scintillating century from Nottinghamshire’s Ben Duckett was the highlight on the second day of their Bob Willis Trophy match against Durham at Trent Bridge.
The 25-year old remains unbeaten on 146 as Notts closed on 251 for 2, with the left-hander adding an unbroken 186 for the third wicket with Joe Clarke, who will resume on 74 not out.
Despite three interruptions for rain and bad light Duckett played fluently throughout, square-cutting and driving imperiously to reach his 18th first-class hundred from 153 balls, with 16 fours.
Durham’s first innings had ended on 294 during the morning session, with Zak Chappell taking 4 for 92 for the hosts.
The day also featured a significant milestone for Chris Rushworth, who has become only the third bowler to reach 500 first-class wickets for Durham.
He struck with just his sixth delivery of the match to break an in-form opening pairing in typical fashion. In Nottinghamshire’s previous fixture in this competition Ben Slater and Haseeb Hameed put on 200 for the first wicket against Leicestershire.
This time, they failed to negotiate the opening over as Slater fell lbw to Rushworth without scoring. The left-handed opener had started the day as the leading scorer in the Bob Willis Trophy, with 425 runs, but has now been overtaken by Worcestershire’s Jake Libby.
Either side of lunch Duckett and Hameed resurrected the Nottinghamshire innings with a stand of 65, although Hameed had a life on 17 when he edged Raine behind but wicketkeeper Ned Eckersley put down the routine offering.
The former England international wasn’t so fortunate on 21 when he was smartly taken at third slip by Paul Coughlin, becoming Rushworth’s 500th victim in the process.
Rushworth joins Simon Brown and Graham Onions as the only other bowlers to hit that milestone for the county.
Duckett passed 6,000 first class runs when he reached 47 and moved to his half century soon afterwards, getting to the landmark from 87 deliveries, having hit seven boundaries.
An unwelcome mixture of light drizzle and bad light caused the second half of the afternoon session to be lost but the resumption found Durham guilty of two more dropped catches, as well as some indifferent ground-fielding.
Raine was again unfortunate when Clarke was spilled on 16, put down at slip by Sean Dickson and then the same batsman was reprieved when Alex Lees dropped him off Coughlin seven runs later.
Durham’s attack lacked variety, with five right-arm medium to medium-fast operators and the runs continued to flow for the home county, with Clarke reaching his 50 from 82 deliveries, with seven fours.
By the time of the final stoppage, with nine overs still remaining, the two batsmen had established a new third wicket record partnership in meetings between the two counties.
Earlier, the home county had needed just 40 minutes to take the final two wickets in Durham’s first innings.
They had resumed on 275 for eight, with Brydon Carse and Ben Raine having already added 48 for the ninth wicket. They were subjected to a barrage of short-pitched bowling from Chappell and Jake Ball but added 19 more runs before they were separated.
Carse nicked Chappell off to second slip for 41, leaving the fast bowler to celebrate figures of 4 for 92.
Without further addition, Raine drove uppishly at Ball and picked out Peter Trego at midwicket for 31, leaving Rushworth undefeated.
Without a win in 26 first class matches Notts have reached the halfway position in this contest in a commanding position.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo