Day 4: Nottinghamshire 579 & 89/2 defeated Durham 378 & 289 by 8 wickets.
Colin Ackermann’s second century of the match was not enough to stave off defeat for Durham, who succumbed to Nottinghamshire by eight wickets after a match-turning spell by England fast bowler Josh Tongue.
South African-born Netherlands international Ackermann made 124 to go with his first-innings 116 as Durham, who had trailed by 201 on first innings, looked to emerge with a draw from the opening round of the Rothesay County Championship.
But Tongue, on a Nottinghamshire debut delayed by a full season because of injuries following his 2023 move from Worcestershire, shattered that ambition by taking five for 66, somehow conjuring four wickets in 12 deliveries from a ball right at the end of its 80-over match lifespan.
Durham lost their last five wickets for 21 runs, leaving Nottinghamshire needing 89 to win from 40 overs remaining in the match, a task they completed for the loss of two wickets, skipper Haseeb Hameed making 39 and Joe Clarke 35.
Tongue’s achievement came after Nottinghamshire’s other debut-making fast bowler, Australian international Fergus O’Neill, had taken five for 81 in the first innings. Tongue also made a career-best 55 with the bat in Nottinghamshire’s first innings.
It was a painful defeat for Durham, who posted 378 in their first innings and had the home side 319 for six in reply only for Lyndon James (125), Matt Montgomery (75) and Tongue to bat the home side into a position of strength.
If Durham’s approach to the final day was always likely to be cautious, it was confirmed after Pennington opened with a sharp seven-over spell that brought him two wickets for 10 runs.
At 87 behind overnight, even with seven wickets in hand on a pitch that had yielded runs at around 3.75 per over, the visitors had at least needed a productively trouble-free morning to consider revising that perspective.
Yet after the pacy Pennington had removed Ollie Robinson via an edge to first slip and Will Rhodes leg before, angling one in from a wide delivery point, Durham found themselves five down and still 78 behind.
From then on, Ackermann and Clark dug in for a long fight and any hope that Pennington’s burst might trigger a rapid Durham collapse soon subsided.
The sixth-wicket pair reached lunch still together, before clearing the arrears seven overs into the afternoon session with the innings 68 overs old.
Durham’s first-innings centurion completed his second hundred of the match five overs later, a career-first for the 34-year-old and a 28th in all in first-class cricket. Conditions have largely favoured the bat in this match, but Ackermann did a superb job for his side in both innings.
By now, Nottinghamshire’s best chance of making a breakthrough seemed to be with the second new ball, which was seven overs from being available as the Durham dressing room celebrated Ackermann’s feat.
Yet Tongue dramatically changed the picture in what would have been the last over – the 80th – with the old ball, taking wickets with the first and last deliveries of it as Clark was bowled off an inside edge, ending a partnership with Ackermann worth 145, and new batter George Drissell was leg before, beaten for pace.
Not surprisingly, Nottinghamshire captain Hameed invited Tongue to carry on with the same ball. A wise move it was, the England player repeating the trick in his next over, ripping out Ben Raine’s middle stump with the first delivery, beating Ackermann’s flick across the line with the sixth.
O’Neill promptly finished things off with the new ball by inducing an easy return catch with a slower ball to Matthew Potts, meaning Durham had collapsed from 268 for five to 289 all out in the space of six and a half overs.
After tea was taken between innings, the home side had 40 overs available to score 89. The lost their own first-innings centurion, Ben Slater, leg before to Potts for a duck, and Freddie McCann to a slip catch off a reverse sweep, but wrapped up victory at 4.55pm with 22.5 overs to spare.
Day 3: Durham 378 & 114/3 v Nottinghamshire 579. Nottinghamshire lead by 87 runs.
All-rounder Lyndon James led the way with a superb 125 as Nottinghamshire took advantage of a benign batting surface to build a 201-run first innings lead over Durham, who were still 87 behind on 114 for three, with Colin Ackermann 45 not out at the close of day three of their Rothesay County Championship season-opener at Trent Bridge.
James was backed up by Matt Montgomery’s 75 and fast bowler Josh Tongue’s career-best 55 in a Nottinghamshire total of 579 – their biggest since returning to Division One in 2023.
They built on the earlier efforts of Ben Slater (92) and Freddie McCann (79) to enable a handsome Nottinghamshire overhaul of Durham’s 378 on another day of unbroken sunshine in the East Midlands.
Matthew Potts finished with four for 112, but it was Nottinghamshire’s debutant Australian quick, Fergus O’Neill, who made a bid to seize the spotlight again in the final session, taking two for 29 in his new-ball spell to go with his first-innings five for 81.
If James was the star with the bat for the home side, the part played by Montgomery deserves much credit too.
Although he had been dropped on four off a difficult slip chance on Saturday evening, Montgomery’s solid 146-ball innings guided his side from four down and still 134 behind when he arrived to eight down but 59 in front when an unplayable ball from Potts finally sent him on his way.
The South African-born batter, who made 178 against Durham in his fourth first-class match for Nottinghamshire in 2022, suffered a dip in form that merited only four appearances in the Championship side last year and this was his highest score in almost two years.
Whether it is enough to keep him in the Nottinghamshire line-up once South African Kyle Verreynne arrives to relieve Joe Clarke of wicketkeeping duties remains to be seen.
Montgomery’s partnership with James added 118, frustrating Durham after the removal of nightwatchman Farhan Ahmed by Potts at 319 for six put them one wicket away from getting into the Nottinghamshire tail.
The departure of Fergus O’Neill first ball as Potts claimed his fourth did suggest that Durham would not be in the field for too much longer but once he had seen off his erstwhile England team-mate’s hat-trick ball Tongue was as keen as anyone to take advantage of the bat-friendly conditions.
Showing he has a decent cover drive in his armoury, Tongue racked up nine boundaries in his 55 as he overtook his previous best of 45 not out, made for Worcestershire against Nottinghamshire.
James, meanwhile, had made his way to 94, content to wait for the right ball as Tongue increased Durham’s frustrations at the other end. The all-rounder found his timing and struck the ball cleanly almost from the start. Only when his ninth-wicket partner fell was there a more urgent need to finish the job. A punched four off the back foot took him to 98.
Visibly weary by now, he then had the fortune to have no slips in place as he thick-edged Rhodes for his 14th boundary to take him past the milestone for the fifth time in his first-class career, curiously the third time against Durham. A popular figure with spectators and team-mates here, he threw back his head and removed his helmet to acknowledge the applause.
His departure for 125, caught off a steepling top edge, signalled a tea interval delayed by the ninth wicket falling, after which Durham faced 30 overs and a deficit that soon grew tougher still with two wickets lost in three balls, leaving them 29 for two.
Aussie O’Neill thudded one into skipper Alex Lees’s back pad before sending Emilio Gay’s off-stump flying as the ex-Northamptonshire man bagged a debut pair.
Ackermann and Ben McKinney added 71 for the third wicket but McKinney, dropped at first slip on 33, was caught behind off Tongue for 37 six overs before the close.
Day 2: Durham 378 v Nottinghamshire 297/5. Durham lead by 81 runs.
Two key scalps for seamer Paul Coughlin in the final session left Nottinghamshire with work to do on day two of their Rothesay County Championship match against Durham.
The Sunderland-born 32-year-old, bowled key man Joe Clarke (37) and had 19-year-old prospect Freddie McCann (79) caught behind before Nottinghamshire closed the day on 297 for five in their first innings in reply to Durham’s 378, having also lost Jack Haynes just before the close.
Nottinghamshire had looked well placed at 225 for two after opener Ben had provided a platform with a fine 92, before Coughlin’s spell set them back.
Earlier, following a start delayed by 45 minutes after a sprinkler malfunction left pools of water on the outfield, Coughlin had been last Durham man out as Australian fast bowler Fergus O’Neill completed a debut five-wicket haul.
For spectators present when the bails failed to drop after Durham’s Colin Ackermann was bowled on day one, the delay was another freakish occurrence they could have done without under a near-cloudless sky, even if it initially brought amusement.
As the umpires’ attention was drawn to a leaking sprinkler nozzle a few feet from the stumps at the Stuart Broad End, comic scenes ensued as the offending sprinkler and several others then suddenly burst into life, sending players and officials scurrying to avoid a soaking.
The water was turned off after a matter of seconds. Yet enough was deposited on the playing area to hold things up for a frustratingly long period.
Once play did start, the players went off again after just 14 minutes for the change of innings after Durham, 370 for nine overnight, lost their final wicket.
Not that O’Neill was complaining. A leg-before verdict against Coughlin gave the bustling seamer figures of five for 81 on debut.
Nottinghamshire openers Slater and Haseeb Hameed negotiated the first 16 overs to be 48 without loss at lunch, Hameed surviving a chance to wicketkeeper Ollie Robinson off Matthew Potts on eight. By tea, the home side were probably where they wanted to be at 166 for two, although they had suffered a blow moments before when Slater fell.
Potts had got his man when skipper Hameed was leg before for 27 but the left-handed Slater looked in imperious form, having just pinged away his 19th four, most of which raced away to the short boundary on the Bridgford Road side.
But when Will Rhodes dropped one in short on the leg side, Slater was irresistibly tempted by the longer boundary, only to find Emilio Gay lying in wait at long leg. His meaty pull could not have picked out the fielder any more accurately, enabling Rhodes to celebrate a debut wicket and end a 95-run stand with McCann.
Clarke began with a streaky four off an inside edge but settled quickly and was building another potentially valuable partnership with McCann until a belter of a delivery from Coughlin uprooted his middle stump.
McCann, a tall, technically elegant left-hander who scored two centuries in five matches after being promoted to the Championship side towards the end of last season, continued where he left off and after 10 boundaries few would have bet against another hundred until he dabbled with a ball he need not have played outside off stump and was well taken by Robinson, before Ben Raine turned the screw by dismissing Haynes leg before for 30 with the second new ball.
Day 1: Durham 370/9.
Colin Ackermann posted the first century of the Rothesay County Championship season as Durham recovered to 370 for nine on the opening day against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge.
Australian pace bowler Fergus O’Neill took four for 74 on his debut for the home side but it was Ackermann – celebrating his 34th birthday – who delivered the outstanding performance in the Nottingham sunshine as the visitors battled back from 171 for five after being asked to bat first.
On what looked a good pitch, the South African-born all-rounder enjoyed a moment of freakish good fortune on 80 when a ball from Lyndon James clipped his off stump only for the disturbed bail to drop back into its groove, but otherwise did not offer a chance until he was dismissed on 116, having hit 17 fours and a six.
Alex Lees marked his first match as Durham’s club captain with a half-century, while Josh Tongue took two wickets on his much-delayed Nottinghamshire debut, although he looked nowhere near the form that catapulted him into England’s Test side in 2023. Graham Clark and George Drissell each made 45.
O’Neill arrived at Trent Bridge in outstanding form after taking 38 wickets at 21.07 for Victoria in the Sheffield Shield and struck here in just his third over as Durham’s 20-year-old England prospect Ben McKinney nicked behind.
The 24-year-old, 6ft 4ins but with a slingy action, backed up his maiden success in his next over, dismissing Emilio Gay in similar fashion, leaving the former Northamptonshire batter to reflect on an eight-ball duck on his Durham debut.
If O’Neill was the standout bowler in the opening session, the dismissal of Lees by Farhan Ahmed for 52 felt like an important breakthrough.
Lees was dropped on 17 at first slip off Dillon Pennington and looked in the mood to make Nottinghamshire pay heavily, reaching 51 from 60 balls.
But when Ahmed, the 17-year-old off-spinner, sat one up to tempt the left-hander to clear the short Bridgford Road boundary, his mistimed shot merely found the fielder at mid-on.
After taking 25 wickets in five first-class matches on his debut season last year, Ahmed has quickly overtaken Calvin Harrison and Liam Patterson-White as Nottinghamshire’s first-choice slow bowler.
As the bowler who also dismissed Ackermann, caught at slip pushing at a ball that drifted away to find the outside edge, and maintaining impressive economy to boot, he justified his selection.
With Ollie Robinson and Will Rhodes falling cheaply in the first hour of the middle session, Ackermann’s innings proved vital to keeping Durham’s innings from falling away at 171 for five.
His moment of good luck apart, he rarely looked in any difficulty and after stands of 78 with Lees and 93 with Graham Clark was furious with himself for not sticking around to cash in even more against an ageing ball.
Robinson gave Tongue his maiden wicket as a Nottinghamshire bowler, edging to first slip, while Rhodes, making his debut for Durham after his winter move from Warwickshire, fell to an outstanding catch by Joe Clarke, one-handed low to his left, as O’Neill claimed a third.
Clarke is covering behind the stumps for new signing Kyle Verreynne, who like Durham’s leading runscorer David Bedingham remains in South Africa as Western Province bid for domestic glory.
Tongue, who joined Nottinghamshire from Worcestershire 20 months ago only to be out of action for the whole of that time with pectoral and then hamstring injuries, picked up a second wicket as a fine catch by second slip Freddie McCann accounted for Clark, before O’Neill removed Drissell to raise his tally to four.
The 27-year-old Tongue is centrally contracted with England, whose plan was for he and Olly Stone essentially to alternate appearances in Nottinghamshire’s early championship rounds, although Stone is now himself sidelined following a knee operation and is not expected to return before August.