Nottinghamshire win Division Two title
Nottinghamshire needed just over two hours to take the seven Durham wickets they needed to be confirmed as Division Two champions on the final day of the County Championship season at Trent Bridge.
England’s Stuart Broad, in his first appearance for his county since May, finished with 3-36, left-arm spinner Liam Patterson-White took 3-41 and South African seamer Dane Paterson 2-27.
Durham, for whom David Bedingham was unable to bat because of a dislocated shoulder, were dismissed for 114 to lose by 462 runs. Nottinghamshire had already won promotion after taking seven bonus points but they had wanted to end on a winning note – and gave spectators free admission to witness their triumph.
Resuming on 14-2 after Nottinghamshire had declared their second innings on 121-2, Durham suffered their first loss in the fourth over of the day when Broad angled one in to have Scott Borthwick leg before. Skipper Steven Mullaney, one of four first-innings centurions, sprang a surprise when he did not enforce the follow-on after Durham were dismissed 455 behind on first innings, yet his decision seemed to be justified as a rested attack made life difficult for their opponents in conditions freshened up by overnight rain.
Patterson-White claimed the second scalp of the morning in his first over when Liam Trevaskis’s top-edged sweep looped gently to slip. On-loan Warwickshire wicketkeeper Chris Benjamin took a positive approach, hitting five boundaries in his 33, but came a cropper when Broad returned for his second spell, edging to second slip. Patterson-White bowled Ben Raine, Paterson had Matty Potts edging to second slip, where Matt Montgomery took his second catch of the innings before Patterson-White enjoyed the decisive moment as Jonathan Bushnell, sweeping off balance, was leg before.
Notts began the season as title favourites not on the basis of their form the last time the Championship was played in two divisions, pre-Covid, in 2019, when they were relegated without a win, but on their performance in 2021, when they were in contention for the title right up to the last round.
(BBC)