Nottinghamshire v Durham:
Durham 294 (Harte 72, Chappell 4-92, Carter 3-43) and 329 (Jones 82, Patel 4-80, Trego 3-34), Nottinghamshire 422 (Duckett 150, Clarke 133, Rushworth 7-108) and 82-1 (Duckett 36*, Trego 34, Raine 1-43).
Match drawn.
Almost as soon as it began, it was over.
On what had possibly been the balmiest day of cricket this season, the truncated 2020 red-ball campaign came to an end.
Blue skies, white clothing, and the green, green, grass of Trent Bridge – it was the kind of scene that, for a time, looked as though it would be denied for the whole of 2020.
And while the absence of stalwart supporters and members from their regular berths around the ground has lent this campaign a strange air – one which nobody wishes to experience again – the pure joy of the Green and Golds to be engaged in red-ball battles has been clear throughout.
It was present once again on the final day of the season as Tom Moores used every inch of his frame to complete a one-handed, horizontal catch to see off Michael Jones.
For Moores, whose steadfast and explosive century earlier this season will live long in the memory, it was another moment for the scrapbook.
Peter Trego’s ever-present appetite for the fight was demonstrated in a brace of impassioned appeals and celebrations as Bedingham and Poynter departed.
And the flight and guile of twin twirlers Samit Patel and Matthew Carter were in evidence as Harte, Eckersley and Coughlin were bested.
Durham’s last-wicket pair of Brydon Carse and Ben Raine clung on, before Patel foiled the former for his fourth of the innings.
It left, according to the scorers and statisticians with their abacuses at the ready, a victory target of 202 inside 15 overs, plus however many could be bowled before the final hour began.
It was a chase that would challenge in a white-ball encounter. In First-Class cricket, with fielders socially-distanced along the boundary edge, it was an even taller order.
In a situation demanding brawn and boundary hitting, Ben Duckett and Peter Trego were sent out to begin the assault.
Second ball, Duckett pierced the field with a whip behind square.
Second over, Trego flashed past third man for another boundary.
And the powerful all-rounder really found his range thereafter, lightning-fast bat speed sending the ball clattering into the Smith Cooper and Yu Energy Stands.
Trego was throwing everything at the pursuit, causing the Trent Bridge maintenance team innumerable headaches by endangering boundary boards and seats with every swing of the bat.
Duckett, too, was making merry with his array of sweeps and scoops, moving along nicely in the slipstream as the pair put on fifty in double-quick time.
The partnership was curtailed on 69 as Trego was bowled by Raine, with Duckett continuing in the company of Joe Clarke.
The chase was ultimately called off shortly after 5pm – but my, was it fun to watch the Trent Bridge trio give it their all.
It was one final piece of theatre in a red-ball season of some promise – and one to help sustain the Green and Golds through the gloom of winter and into the 2021 campaign.
View the scorecard, watch the highlights and relive the action here...
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