Nottinghamshire slumped to their first defeat of the LV= County Championship season when they were beaten by Durham by six wickets at Chester-le-Street.
Set to score 261, the highest total of the match, the home side comfortably reached their target, thanks to solid second innings contributions from four of their batsmen.
A second wicket stand of 116 between Mark Wood and Keaton Jennings provided the platform for the success, before Scott Borthwick and Michael Richardson then added 86 together.
Wood, who had come to the crease as a nightwatchman on the second evening, made a career best 66, Jennings scored 61, Borthwick 51 and Richardson ended on 51 not out.
Luke Wood, Harry Gurney and Samit Patel each picked up a wicket, adding to the success of Vernon Philander on the second evening but it proved to be tough going for the bowlers on a track that didn’t offer as much assistance as on the first two days.
“There was still a little bit of seam movement in the pitch,” said Mick Newell afterwards. “But there wasn’t so much swing today, certainly not in the first session when it didn’t swing at all.
“When it did seam we beat the bat a little bit but generally we bowled a little bit too short. In the first innings both us and Durham bowled a little bit fuller and that’s what you need to do here.”
The director of cricket felt his side should have built a larger lead, having dominated the opening two days.
“I still feel 260-odd should have been perfectly defendable. If you have a lead of 82 at Durham on first innings and don’t win it’s disappointing. The ease at which they knocked them off today would suggest we didn’t bowl as well as we would have liked.
“We’ve got to find the right balance amongst the bowlers to take twenty wickets and until we can do that we’re obviously going to either draw or lose matches.”
Durham had begun the day on 15-1, with Jennings and Wood resuming their innings, with 246 more runs still required.
Blustery, overcast conditions again greeted the players’ arrival in the middle but Jennings didn’t appear untroubled as he set the tone by hitting the first two balls of the day for four, working Philander through square leg and past point. He completed the opening over by then driving the ball down the ground for another boundary.
Wood moved from two to six by nicking Philander over the slip cordon and then charged into double figures by pulling his namesake, Luke Wood.
A 16 minute stoppage for a shower gave the visitors a chance to re-group and an opportunity for Chris Read to galvanise his troops but the first opportunity they had to break the stand came from a brilliant piece of fielding.
Wood dropped a ball from Harry Gurney onto the leg side and set off. James Taylor swooped, picked up and threw down the stumps but the umpire adjudged that Jennings had made his ground.
Steven Mullaney’s introduction into the attack looked to have broken the stand as Wood appeared to edge to Patel, low down at second slip. As Notts celebrated, the umpires deliberated and ruled they couldn’t be sure the catch had carried.
The session finished with an over of spin from Patel which cost 15 runs. Jennings clipped the first ball to the ropes to reach his 50 from 102 balls with eight fours, Wood then made the most of his return to the strike by lifting the spinner high over midwicket for six.
Further showers delayed the start of the afternoon session until 1.55pm and the century stand was immediately brought up as Jennings edged Luke Wood over the slips for four.
The same bowler did eventually get reward for his efforts though, as Jennings nudged firmly to gully, where Mullaney hung on to a sharp catch.
Gurney’s return to the attack flattened Mark Wood’s stumps and Notts could briefly contemplate a repeat of the second day when they ran through Durham’s middle order cheaply.
Those hopes were short-lived as Borthwick and Richardson eased the nervy home support with a stand worth 86.
Borthwick had become the third man to reach 50, getting there from 64 balls with eight fours, but then attempted to sweep the first ball of a new spell from Patel and was given out leg before wicket.
A further shower forced an early tea with only 21 runs needed but Durham’s charge to the finishing line wasn’t delayed for long, with Richardson’s fifty coming from 55 balls, with nine fours, before Calum MacLeod, 21 not out, sealed the win by hitting Patel through the covers to condemn Nottinghamshire to their first defeat of the campaign and their third successive away loss to Durham.