Joe Clarke accepted denial of second century insists Notts captain Steven Mullaney

The 22-year-old could have made history on his Nottinghamshire debut, but an early declaration left him short

Nottinghamshire captain Steven Mullaney has defended the decision to prevent batsman Joe Clarke from completing successive centuries in the draw with Yorkshire.

The hosts declared on 329 for 5 on the fourth morning of their County Championship opener at Trent Bridge with the 22-year-old 97 not out, three away from his second ton of the game.

But with Notts sensing a possible victory, Mullaney stuck the visitors in to deny the England hopeful a moment of history.

Clarke would have joined a group of containing just two other players - Derbyshire’s Chris Bassano and Kent’s Martin van Jaarsveld - to hit back-to-back centuries on debut for their new county, had he been allowed to continue.

“We didn’t get together, it was my decision but I spoke to Joe," said Mullaney.

"He was the first one to come up to me last night when he wasn’t out and he said whatever is best for the team and if you want to declare.

SCORECARD

"That’s the sort of bloke he is and the sort of team that we want to build.”

The decision to set Yorkshire an unlikely 477 to win proved immaterial as Joe Root and Gary Ballance both hit centuries to secure a stalemate.

“I thought we were in a position overnight where we could push on for 23 points," added the skipper. "We knew that those two were massive wickets, we thought we had Joe down the leg side with about 50 overs left but it wasn’t given and you’ve got to get on it with it.

"We’ll put our hands up and say they’ve played really well but I’m really happy at how we’ve gone.

"Every batter has scored runs and if we keep playing cricket like that we’ll get a break and get a win and be a force to be reckoned with.  

“It was a good game of cricket, I thought we showed a lot of character today, a lot of true Yorkshire grit if you like, to get a good draw out of that against a good, solid Notts team who probably outplayed us for three days there."