Day Three
Nottinghamshire v Durham
LV County Championship

UNLESS Durham finally give Mark Wood a run of games he will surely apply for a transfer to Nottinghamshire.

In his third appearance at Trent Bridge – he hasn’t played championship cricket anywhere else – he defied the flattest of pitches yesterday evening to give Durham a chance of victory.

First the 23-year-old Ashington all-rounder made an unbeaten 58, looking as though he could bat with a stick of rhubarb. Then he took three wickets when Nottinghamshire looked like wiping out their arrears of 151 in double quick time.

They will resume six behind after reaching 145 for five as Michael Lumb continued to pepper the boards in an unbeaten 77. There was a bonus for Durham when Gareth Breese had Steven Mullaney caught at slip four overs from the close.

In the match here last August Wood took four wickets in the final session to finish with five for 78 and pull off an unlikely 16-run win.

He had replaced Ben Stokes, who was on England Lions duty, and duly made way for the next match.

He will not be making way when Durham do battle on another flat surface at the Oval next week, when the ECB’s decision to allow the return of the heavy roller might again be questioned.

In the space of two weeks pitches have been transformed from early season seamers to bowlers’ graveyards.

After being the victims of the highest fourth innings run chase ever pulled off at Riverside on Saturday, Durham yesterday made their highest total since June, 2011.

After two successive defeats, their priority was to avoid a third against a strong Nottinghamshire side including Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann.

By batting for 157 overs to make 471 they seemed to have killed the game, but the first ray of hope came with the 12th ball of Nottinghamshire’s second innings when Chris Rushworth nipped one back to take out Alex Hales’ middle stump.

The situation held no fears for Lumb, however, as he and Ed Cowan raced to 45 for one from ten overs at tea and continued at the same rate afterwards.

They had added 76 when Wood moved one away from left-hander Cowan to have him caught by Phil Mustard.

Four overs later he straightened one which James Taylor was looking to play through mid-wicket to have him lbw, then Samit Patel tried too late to withdraw his bat and fended a catch to second slip.

Three wickets had gone down for 16 runs before Mullaney put on 43 with Lumb and nightwatchman Luke Fletcher saw out the closing overs, despite ducking into one from Graham Onions, which rattled his helmet. The ball had not got above waist height on the moribund surface.

When runs are flowing at Trent Bridge and Headingley, where seamers normally expect some assistance, the balance between bat and ball has tilted too far.

It always seemed likely that the flatness of the pitch, rather than Durham’s tactics in grinding down Nottinghamshire, had enabled Wood and Onions to share a lastwicket stand of 70 in 12 overs.

Durham were still in grinding mode when Wood went in 20 minutes before lunch on Will Smith’s exit for 153.

The youngster took 24 balls to get off the mark, but needed only a further 39 to reach his maiden half-century.

He went to his 50 with his second six, clobbered over cow corner off Mullaney, while the first was lifted sweetly over mid-wicket off Swann.

The England spinner remained wicketless and held no fears for Wood, who included a perfectly-executed reverse sweep in his four fours.

The ease of batting at this point was emphasised by Onions clubbing Broad back over his head for four. But he probably realised it was time to bowl when he lofted a catch to mid-off after making 26.

On a cloudless morning Durham added only 67 runs.

The eventual attempt to press on proved Smith’s downfall as he drove Patel to mid-on to end his 393-ball vigil.

He had put on 43 in 20 overs with Breese, who went to the crease when Mustard was adjudged caught behind off Broad.

Breese did look in any difficulty other than in piercing the tight field, but after lunch he went down the pitch to drive a lofted straight four in a Patel over which cost 11.

He fell for 44, lbw to the first ball of a new spell from Broad, who then failed to make any impression on Onions.

There was no joy for Onions either, proving that even the best bowlers need a little assistance from the pitch.

* FORMER Chester-le-Street paceman Graeme Cessford, a 29-year-old RAF corporal, made his first-class debut for Worcestershire against Oxford University yesterday. He has been granted Elite Athlete status by the RAF, enabling to pursue a career as a professional sportsman.

SCORECARD

Nottinghamshire v Durham
At Trent Bridge.
Overnight: Nottinghamshire 320 (J W A Taylor
97, S J Mullaney 80).Durham 297-6 (W R
Smith 119 no, P D Collingwood 64).

Durham First Innings
W R Smith c Fletcher b S R Patel .........153
P Mustard c Read b Broad ..................21
G R Breese lbw b Broad ......................44
M A Wood not out ..............................58
G Onions b S R Patel Mullaney ...........26
Extras (b1 lb6 nb2 pens 0) .......... 9
Total (157.3 overs) .......................471
Fall: 1-34 2-46 3-86 4-124 5-148 6-263
7-313 8-356 9-401
Bowling: Broad 31-4-88-4. Fletcher 30-9-84-1.
Shahzad 31-6-90-2. Swann 34-7-90-0.
Mullaney 13.3-2-51-2. S R Patel 18-4-61-1.

Nottinghamshire Second Innings Close
A D Hales b Rushworth ....................... 0
E J Cowan c Mustard b Wood ..............35
M J Lumb not out ...............................77
J W Taylor lbw b Wood ........................ 1
S R Patel c Breese b Wood ................... 4
S J Mullaney c Collingwood b Breese ..20
L J Fletcher not out ............................ 3
Extras (b1 nb4 pens 0) ................ 5
Total 5 wkts (42 overs).................145
Fall: 1-1 2-77 3-85 4-93 5-136
To Bat: C M W Read, S C J Broad, G P Swann,
A Shahzad.
Bowling: Onions 10-2-31-0. Rushworth 4-0-26-1.
Borthwick 1-0-9-0. Stokes 6-0-24-0. Wood
8-0-36-3. Breese 13-6-18-1.