Notts CCC v Yorkshire CCC: No Headingley-type thrills at Trent Bridge

This one saw Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire each take 12 points from a stalemate that had felt inevitable for quite some while. A combination of a flat pitch, a Kookaburra ball that tends to go soft and batsmen disinclined to pass up the chance to boost their tallies made for a tedious game in the grand scheme of things, albeit one in which Yorkshire ‘stopped the rot’.

Two successive defeats going into a month-long break for the Vitality Blast - the last of them against Nottinghamshire at Headingley - had left Anthony McGrath’s men with a record of one win, two draws and four defeats.

Although they remain second-bottom of Division One, 14 points behind third-bottom Essex, who they play at York from Sunday, this was a solid display against the mid-season pacesetters, who saw their lead trimmed to just two points following Surrey’s win at bottom club Worcestershire.

After starting day four on 414-6 in their first innings, replying to Nottinghamshire’s 487, Yorkshire were dismissed for 510 on the stroke of lunch. Poor Matty Revis was left stranded seven short of what would have been a third first-class hundred, the all-rounder impressive in attack and defence in a highly efficient, composed performance.

Nottinghamshire reached 148-1 second time round before the umpires pulled out the stumps, the players shook hands, and the smattering of spectators made their way home, no doubt to answer such half-hearted questions as “how was it, dear?” and to answer untruthfully with the words “yes, really good.”

Glorious sunshine and fluffy white clouds had greeted the teams when they took to the field, the wind down too from recent days as evidenced by the trees behind the Larwood and Voce and the Hound Road stands, the branches of which swayed softly.

Nottinghamshire opened with spin from both ends, although the turn was slow for Liam Patterson-White, the left-armer, and Farhan Ahmed, the teenage off-spinner. Farhan did create one chance before the third new ball - taken after half-an-hour’s play - when Revis turned him firmly to short-leg only for Jack Haynes to grass a tough reflex catch.

In humid conditions, with the temperature up in the mid-20s, the cricket was as sedate as the match situation. The first boundary did not come until the 17th over of the morning, George Hill dismissively dispatching a full-toss from Patterson-White to the mid-on boundary in the direction of the old committee balcony now obscured by the pavilion renovation.

After a “big first hour” that was no such thing, the first wicket fell after 75 minutes, Freddie McCann somehow squeezing one through Hill’s defences with his part-time off-spin. The ball pitched a fair way outside the off stump and it looked as though Hill somehow played-on; he scored 30 from 88 balls with two fours, sharing 62 for the seventh-wicket with Revis in 160 deliveries.

Revis and Dom Bess lifted the total past 500, Bess injecting welcome impetus with 26 from 34 balls. However, he was the first to go as Yorkshire lost their final three wickets for five runs in 24 deliveries, an ignominious conclusion to the innings as they squandered a chance to forge a nuisance advantage.

McCann helped himself to two of those wickets to end with a career-best 3-53, having Bess stumped down the leg-side as he came down the track and Jack White bowled past the outside edge.

In between there was a Keystone Cops moment when Revis and Will O’Rourke got into the mother and father of all run-out tangles, O’Rourke the man out when, after playing Haseeb Hameed into the offside, the ball was returned to the bowler who nonetheless seemed to break the stumps with his body rather than with the ball; not that anyone really cared.

Patterson-White wheeled his way through 62 overs - the most by a Nottinghamshire bowler in a first-class match since the corresponding fixture 96 years ago when Sam Staples, who bowled briskish off-spin, sent down 68 overs in another bore draw.

At least Nottinghamshire were positive in their second innings here, Ben Slater, the left-handed opener, reaching his fourth successive fifty against Yorkshire in this year’s tournament.

Slater added 81 for the first wicket with Hameed in 20 overs, the Nottinghamshire captain bowled by a good one from Dan Moriarty, the left-arm spinner.

Slater (74) and McCann (30) added 67 before hands were shaken at ten-to-five, Dawid Malan, James Wharton and Jonny Bairstow turning over their arms in the closing stages and Fin Bean taking the wicketkeeping gloves for the final session.