After winning the toss the Nottingham openers put on 21 before Karl Turner was bowled by Callum Thorp for 8. The Durham bowlers worked hard to get their rewards on a pitch that initially didn’t offer much movement.
Darren Bravo joined Alex Hales and the pair looked pretty confident adding 58 before Ruel Brathwaite got in on the action enticing the former to edge the ball to Phil Mustard behind the stumps for 23.
It was Mitchell Claydon who claimed the first scalp after the lunch break leaving Notts 130-3 after Riki Wessels was caught behind having contributed three runs to his 51 run partnership with Hales.
A change of ends for his second spell saw Mark Wood claim his first LV= County Championship wicket, that of Steven Mullaney (8) who was also caught behind.
Hales went on to secure his hundred, which included fifteen boundaries, from 132 deliveries.
Nottingham were 183-5 after their skipper, Chris Read (17), became Mustard’s fourth catch of the day, this time off Thorp.
Hales went on to score 115 before he was dismissed just before tea thanks to a fantastic catch from Mark Stoneman, off the bowling of Brathwaite, who dived forward at deep mid wicket to hold on to the ball.
Andre Adams added 13 but was caught by Smith, becoming Claydon’s second victim, before he could get into his stride, leaving Nottingham 231-7.
Claydon went on to claim the eighth wicket, that of Paul Franks, who was caught at second slip by Michael Di Venuto for 34 in the 67th over.
Graeme White faced 18 deliveries before being trapped lbw by Ian Blackwell without scoring and the final wicket fell to the debutant, Mark Wood, when Blackwell caught Darren Pattinson for just three and dismissing Notts for 270.
Durham didn’t get off to the best of starts and were 27-3 after 9.4 overs with Michael Di Venuto (3) caught by Hales off Fletcher in the third over, followed by Pattinson going on to claim the wickets of Smith (5) and Stoneman (17) within four deliveries .
Paul Collingwood (12*) and Dale Benkenstein (4*) dug in, in increasingly overcast conditions, to push Durham on to 44-3 at the close, which occurred two overs early due to bad light.
At the close of play Durhamccc.co.uk spoke to Mark Wood, “I found out I was playing this morning in the warm up, I got the nod and even though my heart was going a bit I was really pleased to get the call.
“I was nervous to start with, after my first spell I started to feel a bit better about things and the wicket at the start of my second definitely settled me down. I had good rhythm and I think I was bowling nicely.
“With the short boundary it was a bit difficult, Alex Hales is a good player but maybe I was just trying too hard. From the other end I did have good rhythm and I felt I bowled better from the second end. I hope that the Colonel remembers that so I can bowl from that end next innings! It was my first visit to Trent Bridge and it felt good at the top end.
“I did drop a catch which wasn’t great but I think it was more mental than technical – it was in the air for such a long time and I think I got a bit jittery. I’ll make sure I catch the next one!
“I think they had the best of the bowling conditions, it swung around towards the end and I think Colly and Benks were superb to make sure we didn’t lose any more wickets. I didn’t think we bowled badly, it just swung around more for them because of the overcast conditions.
“To bowl them out for 270 was a good effort especially after they’ve won the toss and batted”.
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Day one highlights will posted online at www.durhamccc.co.uk/durhamtv on Tuesday morning.