The red-ball renaissance of Zak Chappell and Matt Carter continued as Durham closed on 275-8 at Trent Bridge.
The Lincolnshire-born duo shared six wickets on day one of the Bob Willis Trophy contest, as Nottinghamshire turned the screw in pursuit of the victory that could see them finish third in the north group table.
Durham had won the toss and elected to bat, only for Chappell to add the 12th, 13th and 14th dismissals of his stellar red-ball season to quickly reduce the visitors to 33-3.
Broad of shoulder and shaven of head, the former Leicestershire right-armer is an imposing brute of a man – yet his three-strike morning was more a story of intelligence, subtlety and control.
With Jake Ball and Peter Trego equally deft in their accuracy, the scoreboard went nowhere fast. Chappell, meanwhile, went strokes for folks.
To Sean Dickson (7), the Granthamian speared everything in at the stumps. The resulting lbw was as adjacent as it was inevitable.
With the bowler then reverting back to off-stump lines, Michael Jones (0) and David Bedingham (4) each fenced catches to an ever-encroaching slip cordon.
And with Ball inducing an ill-judged drive from Alex Lees (31), Durham lunched on 68-4.
Marcus North’s men were in urgent need of some obduracy, and they got it in spades from Stuart Poynter and Gareth Harte, who batted for much of the afternoon session in taking the total to 167.
But, after Steven Mullaney opened the hutch by sitting down Gareth Harte’s off-stump for 71, it was time for the Bardney Bamboozler to spin his web.
Stuart Poynter (50) and Ned Eckersley (25) fenced rising deliveries to keeper and point respectively. Their dismissals sandwiched former Outlaw Paul Coughlin (21) poking one to Haseeb Hameed at short-leg.
The taking of the new-ball at 252-8 was Chappell’s cue to return to centre-stage. Ironically, his stint at two tail-enders, Brydon Carse (35*) and Ben Raine (23*), went wicketless. Cricket’s a funny old game.
View the full day one scorecard here…
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