County Championship: Nottinghamshire bonus points secure promotion back to Division One

Nottinghamshire paceman Dane Paterson has taken 73 wickets this season

Nottinghamshire have secured promotion back to the County Championship top flight for the first time since 2019.

The six-times county champions began their final home game of the season against Durham still needing seven points to secure promotion.

They four claimed batting points on Tuesday, after scoring 662-5 declared.

Notts then finished the job when Matty Potts hit Dane Paterson to Ben Slater at midwicket for a third bowling point – and Durham were bowled out for 207.

With Durham a man down, after batter David Bedingham dislocated his shoulder on Tuesday, that ninth wicket brought their first innings to an end.

The Notts slip cordon will be on hand at Trent Bridge on day four to try and finish off Durham and earn an eighth Championship win of the season

Peter Moore’s side, beaten by an innings at Worcester last week, will go on to also secure silverware for winning the Division Two title if they avoid defeat.

But they sprang a major surprise by not enforcing the follow-on, although 455 runs ahead, knowing that a draw will be enough, even if nearest rivals Middlesex go on to claim a 24-point win over Worcestershire at New Road.

The bizarreness of batting again lasted just 30.2 overs, in which they lost Slater and one of their four first-innings centurions Matt Montgomery cheaply before an unbroken 91-run stood between Haseeb Hameed, who added 49 to his first-innings 115, and Joe Clarke, who was on 48 when the declaration came on 121-2.

In the eight overs before the close, Notts’ seamers then struck twice, England paceman Stuart Broad removing Somerset-bound South African Sean Dickson before Luke Fletcher bagged nightwatchman George Drissell.

Notts’ up and downs

Notts were relegated in 2019, prior to the Covid pandemic. They then played in the Bob Willis Trophy in the truncated 2020 season, before the three-group/split season system deployed in 2021.

When the 2022 season returned in more established form, Notts’ relegation still stood. But they have enjoyed a successful campaign in trying to get out of Division Two at the first attempt – and have so far won seven of their 13 games, losing just twice, to Glamorgan and Worcestershire.

This is Notts’ fifth promotion since two-division cricket was first introduced in 2000, but they have only once gone up as champions – in 2004.

The exact structure of county cricket for 2023 is yet to finally be determined, although changes are proposed in former ECB supremo Sir Andrew Strauss’s high performance review, published last week, are targeted for implementation in time for the 2024 season.

Nottinghamshire captain Steven Mullaney:

“There is a lot of relief to know we are promoted after all the hard work that’s been put in and after the struggles of a few years ago. I’m obviously very proud of everyone in the dressing room, not just the players but the backroom staff.

“We’ve worked our socks off for two or three years. We felt a bit hard-done by last season when we were told we wouldn’t be in Division One, but everything happens for a reason and we’ll give it a crack next year.

“I feel very proud as captain to lead this group of people. It is a privilege to walk on the field wearing the shirt, let alone as captain, after everyone who’s been before.

“There were good arguments in favor of and against enforcing the follow-on, and we decided to go down the route of giving the bowlers a rest. Stuart Broad had bowled 13 or 14 overs, Dane Paterson had bowled 15 and Luke Fletcher 11.

“I fully get people thinking we should have made them follow-on but at the end of the day we’ve got 600 runs to play with and we’ve got them two down, so I think we are in a healthy position. It was never the case of trying to draw. I want to finish on a win at home.”

Durham skipper Scott Borthwick:

“It has been a tough couple of days. Notts bowled really well, put the ball in good areas enough times, probably more than we did.

“Not having David Bedingham didn’t help. Their seam bowlers got their tails up. They bowled well in that six-over burst tonight.

“They are a senior bowling attack with a lot of experience and that showed. That has been the difference. We have Matty Potts and Ben Raine, who have been outstanding, but after that we’ve got two young seam bowlers who have probably played only six games between them, and are not used to bowling the overs that they did.

“I wasn’t surprised that they didn’t enforce the follow-on. I was thinking I would have done the same, told my bowlers to have a rest, and give us 10 overs at them at the end, which they did. They have already won promotion but they will want to finish the season with a win, not let it fizzle out as a draw.”