Nottinghamshire head north to face Durham this weekend, the match beginning on Sunday at the Emirates Durham International Cricket Ground in Chester-le-Street.
With draws from their three opening fixtures Notts will be looking to pick up their first win of the new campaign on a ground where they’ve struggled in recent times.
They’ve lost on each of their last two Championship visits and were twice defeated in the 50-over competition last season, losing in both the group and semi final stages.
Durham’s start to this campaign has been slightly topsy-turvy, with wins over Somerset and Sussex being followed by a heavy defeat at Lord’s earlier this week, where they were shuttled out for 71, their second lowest Championship score of all time.
Head To Head
Since Durham joined the County Championship in 1992 they have contested 30 first class matches against Nottinghamshire.
Durham hold a slender overall advantage, with 11 wins to Nottinghamshire’s nine. A further nine matches have been drawn and one match was abandoned without a ball being bowled.
Following Durham’s elevation to the first class ranks Notts have enjoyed mixed fortunes on their previous first class visits to the north-east.
In all they have played 15 Championship fixtures away against Durham, although only 14 of them have featured any cricket. The 2008 encounter was completely washed out with not a single ball bowled on any of the four days.
Of the other fixtures, Durham have won seven contests, Notts have been victorious in five (1993, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2012), with two games ending in draws.
Last Time
Last season’s match at the Emirates Durham ICG was played between August 31 and September 3 2014 and featured four days of gripping cricket which eventually went the way of the hosts.
Nottinghamshire gave county debuts to an experienced duo in James Franklin and Gary Keedy.
New Zealander Franklin stepped into the overseas breach, for what would be his only first class match for the county, after Peter Siddle had been recalled back to Australia, whilst Keedy was given an opportunity after spending the summer with the second eleven.
Durham were bundled out for 253 on the opening day, after opting to bat first. Michael Richardson and Mark Stoneman each made half centuries, with Ajmal Shahzad’s three for 71 being the pick of the bowling figures.
Notts were left with a first innings deficit of 65 after being shot out for 188, with no-one bettering Riki Wessels score of 37.
An even 100 from Paul Collingwood bolstered Durham’s second knock of 309, which floundered against the spin of Keedy (four for 86).
Set 375 to score in five sessions, Notts reached 197 for four by the end of the third day. Michael Lumb had fallen for 58 but the in-form Wessels had again impressed and was unbeaten on 77 overnight.
Apart from Nottinghamshire’s debutants, the home county also fielded a new player. Peter Chase, a young Irish seamer, was playing his maiden first class match and had a final day to remember.
He had Wessels caught on the midwicket fence for 90 on the way to taking five for 64 as Notts were bowled out for 320, losing by 54 runs.
History
The first match in the series of fixtures was played in 1993 at the Ropery Lane ground in Chester-le-Street and Nottinghamshire helped themselves to a huge victory inside three days. The winning margin of an innings and 157 runs was largely due to an astonishing turn-around with the bat.
Having been 4-2 early on, the visitors recovered to post 629, thanks to 130 from Paul Johnson and a career-best innings from Chris Lewis, who made a mammoth 247 and wicket-keeper Bruce French who posted 123. Together they added 301 for the 7th wicket, a county record that still stands. Lewis’ score remains the highest ever recorded by a Nottinghamshire number six.
Two years later, in the first meeting at the Riverside, it was the hosts who came out on top, with John Morris – later to join the Trent Bridge staff – hitting the only century of the contest.
A drawn match at Hartlepool in 1997 was ruined by the weather but since then all the other 12 meetings have been played at the Chester-le-Street ground, now a Test match venue in its own right.
Notts’ win in 2002 was built around a century from Usman Afzaal and they won again in 2004 with Russell Warren scoring a hundred after Charlie Shreck had taken 6-46 with the ball.
In 2009 Durham amassed a colossal total of 648-5 declared in their first innings. Michael Di Venuto and Kyle Coetzer combined with 314 for the first wicket. Di Venuto eventually fell for 219, Coetzer made 109 and there were also hundreds for Dale Benkenstein and Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Notts were made to follow on after Liam Plunkett took 6-85 and eventually succumbed to an innings defeat.
Four years ago, unusually, Nottinghamshire opened their innings at Durham with two first class debutants. Handicapped by England Lions call-ups for both Alex Hales and Samit Patel, they gave opportunities to both Karl Turner and Sam Kelsall.
In the 2012 Trent Bridge fixture between the two sides, Durham were permitted to make an official change to their starting eleven after Graham Onions had been omitted from an England Test at Lord’s.
Onions arrived at Trent Bridge at lunch on the second day just as Notts were about to begin their first innings. Replacing the unlucky Mitch Claydon, Onions proceeded to dismantle the home side with figures of 9-67 and only had himself to blame for not getting all ten wickets as it was his direct throw that ran out the other batsman, Luke Fletcher.
Played For Them Both
Nottinghamshire’s Will Gidman will be returning to face his first county this week. The all-rounder made only one first class appearance for Durham but featured in 16 one-day matches for them between 2008 and 2010.
The 30-year old then spent four seasons with Gloucestershire before his winter move to Trent Bridge.
Six other cricketers have played in first class matches for both Nottinghamshire and Durham. The first to do so was wicketkeeper Chris Scott, who played 63 times for Notts between 1981 and 1991, then moved north to join Durham for their debut season in the county championship.
Others to have represented the two counties include: Mark Saxelby, Nathan Astle, John Morris, Will Smith and Mark Davies.
Stats
Highest Team Total
Durham: 648-5 dec (Riverside 2009)
Notts: 629 (Ropery Lane, Chester-le-Street 1993)
Highest Individual Score:
Durham: 219 MJ Di Venuto (Riverside 2009)
Notts: 247 CC Lewis (Ropery Lane, Chester-le-Street 1993)
Best Bowling:
Durham: 9-67 G Onions (Trent Bridge 2012)
Notts: 6-46 CE Shreck (Riverside 2004)
There hasn’t been a hat-trick taken in any first class match yet, between Notts and Durham.
Milestones
James Taylor has scored 2,998 first class runs for Nottinghamshire, getting his runs from 50 matches with an average of 41.06.
Will Gidman has taken 196 first class wickets, the first of which was Dilruwan Perera of Bangladesh A, taken in his only appearance for Durham at Chester-le-Street in 2007.
Tickets
For all match day information access the official Durham CCC website www.durhamccc.co.uk
Coverage
There will be on-line ball-by-ball commentary of this and every other Nottinghamshire match this season, provided by BBC Radio Nottingham. Access the link via the BBC Sport website.
For text updates, ball-by-ball scorecard, visit Trent Bridge Live.
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