Polished Yorkshire CCC pile on the misery for struggling Nottinghamshire at Scarborough

Hughes would not have been the only one mouthing expletives at North Marine Road had Yorkshire not managed to win this game. But after leaving Nottinghamshire an unlikely 387 for victory, the hosts duly dismissed them for 243 to win by 143 runs eight minutes after lunch on day four. As such, any words rhyming with “clucking bell” would likely have been heard only in the visitors’ dressing room. Nottinghamshire’s eighth defeat in 11 Championship matches this summer, to go with three draws, left them apparent certainties for relegation. Yorkshire, whose outside hopes of winning the title are now increasingly remote with just three games left and a 37-point gap to leaders Essex, have won five of 11 fixtures. They have had a good four-day campaign up to now and this result consolidated third place in the table. Had they not suffered a narrow three-wicket defeat to Warwickshire at York in June, a good summer would now be threatening to turn into something more silvery. This was a polished dispatch of a poor Nottinghamshire side, albeit one which did not go gentle into that good night in a manner that they have this season too often for comfort. Nottinghamshire’s task was already steeper than the climb up to Scarborough’s South Cliff when play resumed in watery sunshine. The score was 135-4 and the target still 252 runs distant; Nottinghamshire have only twice chased more to win a first-class match. Ben Duckett, 47 overnight, should have fallen to the day’s fourth ball, but Ben Coad dropped a relatively straightforward return chance from the Peasholm Park end. Two balls later, Duckett had his half-century, turning Coad to the long-leg boundary – his seventh four to go with two sixes in a milestone reached from 71 balls. It was a warm day on the North Yorkshire coast, with a crowd of 1,512 scattered around this timeless amphitheatre, and 50 minutes had elapsed before they were able to cheer the day’s first wicket. Duckett, in trying to turn Duanne Olivier into the leg-side, got a leading edge out towards point, where Will Fraine took a tumbling catch. Duckett was annoyed with himself but he had played nicely for 75 from 110 balls, adding 78 for the fifth-wicket with Liam Patterson-White in 23 overs. Four overs later, Keshav Maharaj turned a delivery back into Tom Moores, who provided another catch to Fraine, this time at short-leg, via bat and pad, leaving Nottinghamshire 187-6. In Patterson-White, the 20-year-old left-arm spinner, Nottinghamshire look to have found a good prospect. This was only his third first-class game and he marked it with a maiden half-century, reached from 98 balls with a straight six into the Peasholm Park end off Maharaj. Powerful and compact, a bit taller than the archetypal pocket-rocket but with that kind of build, Patterson-White is a genuine all-rounder on the evidence here. He strikes not only a long ball but a stylish one too, as shown when Olivier was caressed through the covers to the Popular Bank; he finished undefeated on 58 from 134 balls with six fours to go with his maximum. Not many matches go by these days when Olivier does not force a concussion check or two, with Paul Coughlin taking a blow to the helmet that happily did not prevent him from continuing his innings. Having been softened up, so to speak, by the South African pace man, Coughlin fell to Tim Bresnan’s third delivery after he replaced Olivier at the Trafalgar Square end. The former Durham man was trying to leave a ball outside his off stump but diverted it straight to second slip, where Adam Lyth does not drop too many opportunities – least of all those that loop almost apologetically into his hands. Maharaj claimed his fourth wicket of the innings in the next over, spinning a ball back sharply to Luke Wood, who was bowled trying to defend off the back foot. Yorkshire wrapped things up two overs after lunch. With his final two deliveries, Maharaj had Luke Fletcher lbw and then Jake Ball caught at slip by Lyth for a golden duck. The South African finished with 6-95 from 30 overs with seven maidens and left the field to a rousing ovation.