Notts cling on for important draw against Warkickshire
Champions Nottinghamshire built on their third-day fightback to ensure that one of this year’s potential title rivals left Trent Bridge with no more than a draw as Warwickshire’s bid to force a win on the final day came to nothing, although maximum draw points puts the Edgbaston side top of the early Division One table, having played a game more than their rivals.
South African Test wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne made 115 and Joe Clarke 82 as Nottinghamshire, following on, racked up 537 for seven in the second innings of their Rothesay County Championship clash before the captains agreed to call it a day.
The fifth-wicket pair added 180 in the largest of three century partnerships in the innings, with Clarke, who made 94 in the first innings, swelling his personal tally for the season to 449 as the leading runscorer in the competition.
Nottinghamshire captain Haseeb Hameed was pleased the way his side had responded to being up against it. “At times, through the course of a season, you find yourself a little bit on the back foot and we certainly found ourselves on the back foot going into day three,” he said. “We needed to respond. I guess when you're not able to win the game, you have to find a way of not losing. I think we needed to win six sessions out of six really to have any chance of doing that, and being able to do that is pleasing. “There are things we need to do better, of course. And I guess that's exciting as well in a way, because we don't feel like we've played a full game of cricket, so to say, so far as a group. But we still sit towards the top end of the table. We know we've got improvements to make. We've not been perfect by any means, but we've got an opportunity to improve on that come Friday, in our next game.
“From my own point of view, it was pleasing to have got my first hundred of the season. When you are opening the batting in England in April, sometimes it takes one ball and you find yourself back in the dressing room. There’s a little bit of that in what has happened so far. But I’m pleased with how I’ve played and hopefully I can build on that.
“And it's great to see Ben Duckett back playing with the quality we know he has and finding his mojo again. He's been absolutely brilliant since the start of the season, he looks really excited to be playing.
“It was surprising that he didn’t go on to get a hundred because often when he gets to those kind of numbers, he goes on and gets bigger ones. So I think he'll be naturally a little bit frustrated or disappointed that he wasn't able to do that, but the the way he has been striking the ball in those contributions he has made in this game will bolster his confidence.”
Nottinghamshire had been 310 for four overnight, leading by 130. Warwickshire had created a potential opportunity for themselves by taking three wickets in the last hour of Sunday’s play. To turn that into a win, though, they needed realistically to make similar inroads on the final morning. Verreynne and Clarke denied them any.
Five wickets for England’s Josh Tongue notwithstanding, Warwickshire had dominated the first half of the contest, securing maximum bonus points after being asked to bat first and then forcing the title-holders to follow on. Skipper Ed Barnard led from the front with a formidable 165, backed up by a career-best 70 by all-rounder Michael Booth, who then generated good pace with the ball in taking four for 71.
Haseeb Hameed (116) and Ben Duckett (93) gave Nottinghamshire’s second innings strong foundations with a 150-run partnership for the second wicket on Sunday, but both fell before the close, giving Warwickshire’s bowlers fresh impetus for the final day.
With a ball that was only seven overs old on the resumption, there were promising early signs for the visitors as Ethan Bamber forced an inside edge by Verreynne that did not miss the stumps by much and Chris Woakes made a confident appeal for leg before against the same batter, which probably failed only on height.
Yet as the session developed, Verreynne and Clarke looked increasingly secure. Nottinghamshire’s lead, 130 overnight, had grown to 232 by lunch, at which point the partnership was worth 126 and both protagonists had half-centuries under their belts.
There was much to commend about the commitment of all six Warwickshire seamers in trying to make something happen on a generally benign pitch. Bamber and Jordan Thompson were the most impressive.
But Clarke and Verreynne seldom allowed their concentration to waver, which was particularly important when the sunshine of the morning gave way to cloud cover for a period after lunch.
Barnard eventually looked to his spinners to carry the workload, with versatile Australian Test seamer Beau Webster eventually lending his off breaks to the cause.
Yet apart from fellow off-spinner Rob Yates cashing in as Clarke’s patience finally cracked at three minutes to three, no gains were made until after tea, by which time Webster’s dismissal of Verreynne, bowled sweeping after hitting 10 fours in a 283-minute vigil, and an excellent slip catch by Barnard to remove Liam Patterson-White, were inconsequential. After the formality of a Nottinghamshire declaration, handshakes were exchanged at ten to five.