Duckett stands out in a crowded field

JAMES COYNE AT TRENT BRIDGE: Free-flowing unbeaten 146 on a gloomy day when ball regularly beat other bats suggests left-hander is in the form of his life

From time to time this game reminds you of the step up from first-class to Test cricket. Mike Atherton probably puts it best, saying that domestic cricket is a game mainly played beneath your waist, and Test cricket a game generally played above. It’s in that context that Chris Rushworth can take 500 first-class wickets while never getting a look-in for England. 

Well, on the second day of this closing Bob Willis Trophy group match we had four stoppages for showers and bad light, the floodlights on for most of a glowering day, and some pretty fast bowling on a springy surface. Sound familiar to something you’ve already seen this summer? 

Durham’s fielding might not have been up to Test standard, and there was no spin, but there was plenty of pace, movement and bounce out there. It certainly didn’t pay to think this was some kind of dead rubber, as neither team can qualify for the knockouts. 

Though Nottinghamshire had only 63 overs to negotiate due to the interruptions, it added up to an interesting examination for three young batsmen who, had things gone a little differently for them on and off the field, might have been representing England teams in this Covid-affected summer. 

Whether by accident or design, Notts have managed to assemble a batting line-up containing three of the country’s best young batsmen all out of the England picture.

This is the kind of thing that happens, rival county fans will no doubt argue, when you sign the best young player from each of the neighbouring Division Two counties. (The great irony being that Notts would have all been playing Division Two cricket this season themselves had the world not been hit by a pandemic…) 

There were promising glimpses from all of Haseeb Hameed, Ben Duckett and Joe Clarke today, but funnily enough it was the one among them whose defensive technique has been most called into question, whose international future seemed likelier to come in white-ball cricket, who looked most serene out there against a swinging red Dukes ball. 

Duckett it was who scored a commanding hundred, and on a day where some other very good batsmen were playing and missing umpteen times, he made it look disarmingly easy in conditions that absolutely weren’t. 

He put this form down to a hard winter’s work at Trent Bridge with Notts’ array of coaches, which has improved his legside game and allowed him to be more selective over those flaying square drives.

^{Gareth Harte avoids a bouncer}

“I’ve put in hours and hours of work over the winter,” he told The Cricketer. “I spent the whole winter here working on improving my legside game, and that allows me to leave the ball outside off stump a lot better. 

“And during lockdown I really put the onus on my fitness, in a way I probably haven’t before.

”I was thinking even at 60 or 70 that I wanted to kick on and get a really big one." 

Duckett was picked in the intra-squad England white-ball games in July, making some handy runs, but says he hasn’t been in contact with the selectors of late. They've been busy, in fairness, but they might have to ring him soon if he keeps striking the ball this cleanly and precisely.

Neither Rushworth nor the quicker Durham bowlers could really trouble Duckett, who drove sweetly and was onto anything short incredibly quickly. Durham’s fastest and most dangerous bowler, Brydon Carse, was flogged for 16 runs in the first over of his second spell, though he did come closest to removing Duckett with a top-edged hook shot that landed too straight for wide fine leg.

The floodlights were on from 2pm for the rest of the day, but it was hard to argue the players should be coming off for light when Duckett seemed to have no issue seeing the red ball at all. 

The three would-be England players all got a lengthy bat after Ben Slater – who himself had a superb start to the season here and on loan at Leicestershire – was a little unlucky to be given lbw off Rushworth to one that pitched outside leg stump in the first over. 

Surprisingly it was Joe Clarke who looked the most skittish. That’s not what you’d expect from such a technically rounded player, the one nominated by Ian Bell as the player in domestic cricket best suited for England’s middle order. Clarke's ban on England selection is lifted, and it is hard to believe he will be out of the picture for long if the cricket economy fixes sufficiently for the ECB to organise a first-class England Lions tour in the near future. It’s worth remembering he’s still only 24. 

It wasn’t an easy day to bat, but neither was it an easy day to be holding rockets at slip – and that’s what saved Clarke on two occasions before he had got to 25. The luckless Ben Raine had him dropped by first slip Sean Dickson, a sharp chance to his left, and then again off Alex Lees at third slip off Paul Coughlin.

^{Zak Chappell (left) and Jake Ball}

There were a fair few inside edges and chips just out of midwicket’s reach, too. Bell gave his seal of approval after facing Clarke for Warwickshire against Worcestershire a few seasons back, but the younger man is a wristier, more leg-sided player with a more raised backlift than the man who announced his retirement yesterday.

It was a sign of Clarke’s increased maturity that he didn’t let the chances or the stoppages disturb his rhythm, and he survived to the close on 74, sharing in an unbroken third-wicket partnership of 186 with Duckett that took Notts to within 43 runs of Durham with two days to spare.

As Duckett pointed out after play, the presence of two spinners in their side compared to Durham’s none should prove crucial. Notts may not have won a first-class game since the middle of 2018 but barring prolonged bad weather they really ought to win this one.

Duckett and Clarke came together after Coughlin held a high catch at third slip to give Rushworth his 500th first-class wicket for Durham. Hameed could only fence a rising delivery from the Pavilion End – ending an innings of 21 with its fair share of plays and misses and some Steve Smith-style Zorro swishes. In among his 55-ball stay was a bad drop by Durham wicketkeeper Ned Eckersley.

Even so, Hameed looked the business when he danced into some lovely drives. He’s only 23, and looks inked in as Slater’s opener for the foreseeable future at least. 

All the moisture around didn’t seem to unduly deaden the pitch, which was bouncy and lively, despite being used for a T20 Blast match last Friday. Raine bore the brunt of a body barrage from Jake Ball and Zak Chappell at the end of Durham’s first innings, as they edged up to 294.

It could be one happy consequence of this sadly shortened season that the strips in the centre of a county square – in most years overused by now because of TV requirements – have more life in them than they usually would in early September.  

And, behind closed doors this might have been, but there were still plenty of peculiarities and challenges for the umpires and operations teams, who already have all the social distancing to think of.

A shower just before play, on top of the layer of usual September dew, meant the Trent Bridge groundstaff were dragging water off the grass with a rope at the time of the scheduled start, so play actually started two minutes late. And they still came off for lunch two minutes early when the senior umpire Nick Cook decided enough was enough. 

But the umpires did their best to ensure as much play as possible when showers arrived in the afternoon, calling an early tea and a resumption in the afternoon at 3pm. Theoretically we were looking at a 49-over final session at one point, before bad light terminated things. 

If there is a groundswell of opinion for more flexibility about the times of play in Test and first-class cricket, the professional cricketer is going to have to get used to some mighty long sessions in the dirt.

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