Durham v Nottinghamshire at Chester-le-Street 30, 31 May 1, 2 June 2001
Nottinghamshire 371 (U Afzaal 89, P Johnson 109, SJ Harmison 5-100) and 219-5 dec (GS Blewett 137*) Durham 276 (PD Collingwood 91*) and 318-2 (JJB Lewis 112, ML Love 149*)
Durham won by 8 wickets
Durham 17 points Nottinghamshire 7 points
Durham gained a first Championship win of the season, which their supporters could hardly have anticipated at the start of the last day, given the recent fragility of the batting.
On a rain interrupted first day, Nottinghamshire reached 277 for three in large part due to a boundary strewn partnership between Usman Afzaal and Paul Johnson. They had added 172 for the fourth wicket when they were parted by Stephen Harmison on the second morning. Good bowling from Harmison and Ian Hunter limited the visitor’s total despite 38 from Kevin Pietersen, in his first season in England.
Durham were indebted to a defiant innings from Paul Collingwood, but still conceded a first innings deficit of 95. The Australian test batsman, Greg Blewett, in his only season with Nottinghamshire, scored briskly on the third day to set up a declaration as the visitors sought their first Championship win of the season. It was Blewett’s second century of the summer against Durham who now had the challenge of making 315 runs in 102 overs.
Six overs were survived on the third evening, but Michael Gough was dismissed the next morning. After that it was all Durham as Jon Lewis and Martin Love added 258 for the third wicket. At the time it was a Durham record partnership for any wicket in the Championship and it remains a county second wicket record against Nottinghamshire. Lewis hit 14 fours and Love 25 as he hit his first century for Durham. Frustratingly, it was his only hundred in a productive season in which the Queenslander passed 50 fourteen times and made 1364 Championship runs.