Durham pulled off an astonishingly impressive victory over league leaders Nottinghamshire on the final ball in a gripping contest at the Riverside Ground. Durham were set a target of 91 runs which they chased down with ten balls to spare. Their poise and gallop through a topsy-turvy battle punctuated both their tenacity and talent.
The game started with Durham losing their first batsman, Lord, for a mere 15 runs. He nipped one from James Minto just enough to take it into Ben McKinney’s gloves in the slips. This had the hosts briefly shaken. Verryenne’s attacking mindset was contagious, providing just the spark that was needed to break the scoreless draw. At the same time, Clarke emerged with remarkable poise, creating an electrifying matchup.
Once the match was on the line, Clarke delivered with batting skill expected of the champions. Just before going in for lunch, he carved a lovely boundary through the third man region for valuable runs to his team Durham’s total. In spite of all these valuable contributions the team and industry suffered a big defeat. McKinney was first dismissed by Mohammad Abbas on the very first ball he faced, a golden duck. For Gay the pressure increased quickly as he fell caught behind off Mohammad Abbas.
Clarke and Haynes made for a strong and sturdy partnership, peppering the ropes and scoring fifty runs in combination. Clarke’s knock was the more eye-catching of the duo as he brought up his maiden fifty of the season off just 58 deliveries. This milestone quickly became a testament to his grit and skill, in what was a very difficult innings to play.
Nottinghamshire started their second innings of the day with Slater and Rob Lord at the crease, leading by 67-1. They were still 190 runs behind Durham’s altogether. The pursuit of glory became ever more nail biting as Durham were left needing 91 runs in a maximum of 18 overs. With the hosts having lost two key wickets to Mohammad Abbas, fears grew that Pakistan might snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Brydon Carse provided the crucial breakthrough when he bowled Freddie McCann for six. As soon as the ball clipped the off-stump the flicker of hope for Durham was set aglow once more. Facing the growing stress of expected attendance figures, Ackermann rose to the occasion to keep Durham on their course to success. Clarke kept leading from the front and eventually brought up his 25th first-class century off 140 balls. Although he never got to his century, Pigeon scored 119 runs before his innings was up. He may have mistimed his cut on a ball from Yusuf, but by then he had already established himself as the player of the game.
With Ackermann passing fifty, Durham’s route to victory seemed ever more certain. This symbiotic relationship between Ackermann and Clarke would be pivotal as they worked together to fend off dangerous moves during the final laps of the chase. Carse’s decisive contribution came with the bat, scoring the winning runs to clinch the match for Durham and clinching their victory over Notts.
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