CCD2 review: Nottinghamshire ease to victory over Durham
Monday 17 April 2017 19:00, UK
Nottinghamshire coasted to a nine-wicket win over Durham at Chester-le-Street to move 89 points clear of their opponents in the Specsavers County Championship Division Two table.
With the pitch looking flatter than at any time in the match, Greg Smith and Jake Libby had few problems in picking off the runs to take Nottinghamshire to the brink of victory.
They were only 15 short of the 108 target when Libby was bowled by Paul Coughlin for 39, but Smith remained unbeaten on 60. He finished the match by clipping Coughlin sweetly off his toes through mid-wicket for his ninth four.
Batting had looked relatively straightforward from the outset, but after Mark Wood had helped to add 43 for the eighth wicket, Durham's last three wickets went down tamely to leave Keaton Jennings unbeaten on 102.
Resuming on 201-7, all went well for Durham until Wood fell for 21, pulling Luke Fletcher straight to mid-wicket with the total on 244.
Jennings, on 82 overnight, moved into the 90s when he pulled Jake Ball through square leg for his first boundary of the day then did well to dig out a swift yorker from James Pattinson.
When Harry Gurney replaced Pattinson, Jennings pulled the left-armer's first ball in front of mid-wicket for four. He was on 99 when Wood departed, but ran Gurney to third man to reach his hundred off 201 balls.
Northamptonshire took things all the way to the wire as they edged a three-wicket win in a contrived chase at Derbyshire.
Alex Wakely offered up a selection of declaration bowling, upon which Luis Reece (168no) and Billy Godleman (156no) happily feasted en route to 351-1 declared.
That left the away side chasing 326 to win in 65 overs and they got there in thrilling fashion as Rob Newton (98) and Richard Levi (99) made winning knocks that fell just short of the century mark.
Kent's 40-year-old all-rounder Darren Stevens bagged five wickets as Sussex went down by 226 runs at Hove.
Victory took the visitors second, with Stevens the star having already hit two half-centuries in the match.
Kent declared before a ball was bowled then dismissed Sussex for 200 with the main resistance coming down the order from Ben Brown (90) and Jofra Archer (60no).
