County Championship roundup: Yorkshire struggle at Nottinghamshire
An injury scare for Joe Root could not overshadow Yorkshire’s predicament as another super innings from Joe Clarke helped Nottinghamshire disappear into the middle distance at Trent Bridge. Clarke who, alongside Ben Duckett, was wooed by Yorkshire last year, finished three short of what would have been his second century of the game, his Notts debut. He was philosophical as to whether his side, who already have a lead of 446, would bat on in the morning.
Clarke’s sweet knock of drives and flicks was complemented by 61 from Duckett, Chris Nash's 75, and an entertaining fifty from the captain, Steven Mullaney. Yorkshire had earlier been bowled out for 291, with Root (73) falling short of a century after advancing down the wicket to drive Samit Patel and being caught at slip by Mullaney. Matthew Waite and Steven Patterson fell to the same duo. Root went off the field after hurting his left hand stopping a Clarke drive, but will bat on Monday.
Alastair Cook was dismissed twice in a day after Essex were forced to follow on at Southampton. He made 50 in the first innings, but Essex had no answer to Fidel Edwards who took five for 51, four of them bowled. In his second knock, Cook was dismissed for eight; Essex’s blushes were spared by Ravi Bopara’s unbeaten 60, but they still trailed Hampshire by 229 at the close.
In a low-scoring match at Taunton, last year’s runners-up, Somerset, were in trouble against newly-promoted Kent. They bowled out Kent for 209, a deficit of 38, with three wickets each for Craig Overton and Lewis Gregory, but were then teetering at 171 for seven in their second innings, a lead of just 133. Mitchell Claydon, five-wicket hero of the first innings, took three for 30.
In Division Two, rain prevented Leicestershire grabbing their first victory of the season against Sussex at Hove. After bowling the home side out for 308, with four wickets for the 24year-old Tom Taylor – to make it a career-best 10 for 122 in the match – they were 99 for one when play was abandoned for the day, needing 131 more to win.
On a grey day at Northampton, Middlesex followed on after being bowled out for 271, despite a rearguard action by James Harris (61) and a free-flowing Steven Finn. In their second innings they fared a little better, recovering from a start of 10 for two, thanks to an unbroken partnership of 99 from Sam Robson and Dawid Malan (55).
Durham’s openers withstood a torrid 14 overs before bad light stopped play at the County Ground. They were set an unlikely 361 to win after Derbyshire’s middle order clubbed together – with fifties for Tom Lace, his maiden half century, Harvey Hosein and Matthew Critchley.