Nottinghamshire and Durham spent most of the day in the Trent Bridge Pavilion as rain and bad light made just 28 overs of play possible on the first day of this LV= County Championship encounter between last season’s top two teams.

Darren Pattinson took 1-26 in his first outing of the season on home soil whilst Charlie Shreck returned 2-36 as Nottinghamshire removed Durham’s top three for just 36 runs.

A fruitful partnership between Benkenstein and Blackwell saw Durham reach 79-3 at the close but with more rain showers forecast, a draw already seems to be the most likely result.

“We thought we’d get a full day’s cricket in this morning so it’s been disappointing but we’ve bowled well when we’ve been out there and taken three wickets,” said Pattinson, who was untroubled by his recent injuries despite having missed Saturday’s match with a groin strain.

“Now I’m back in the side my aim is to be more consistent and to help the team win games. We’ll be looking to bowl them out cheaply because the ball is moving around a bit and there’s plenty in the pitch.

“Blackwell and Benkenstein are key wickets so the immediate priority is to remove them and then we’ll look to bowl well to the rest of the guys.”

Durham openers Kyle Coetzer and Michael Di Venuto edged to Chris Read and Samit Patel respectively whilst Will Smith was caught low by Paul Franks at short extra cover off the first ball of the second spell of play. The match eventually started shortly after 1pm but just five overs were bowled before the first interruption.