Nottinghamshire have their eyes on a first victory of their title defence after a Joe Clarke century led a dominant display against promoted Glamorgan at Trent Bridge.
The Division One champions began day two by taking six wickets in less than an hour and a quarter as Glamorgan were skittled for 113, seamers Fergus O’Neill and Brett Hutton finishing with four wickets each.
Nottinghamshire decided against enforcing the follow-on and then recovered from 8-2 in their second innings to finish on 284-9, a lead of exactly 450.
Clarke made 136 after he and Ben Slater (70) had added 177 for the third wicket.
The day played out less well for England’s Ben Duckett, looking to rebuild his confidence after a disappointing Ashes series.
Having made 25 on Friday in his first innings back in a Nottinghamshire shirt, the left-hander was run out for just a single.
If the advantage had tipped in favour of Nottinghamshire with the late dismissal of Kiran Carlson the first evening, Glamorgan might have hoped to claw at least some of it back on the second morning.
Instead, from 81-4 overnight, the Welsh county lost their last six wickets for 26 runs in a somewhat feeble capitulation.
Australian quick O’Neill, who had taken two wickets in his first three overs on day one, repeated the feat to finish with 4-24.
Hutton (4-33) ran through the tail and Dillon Pennington picked up the other wicket to fall.
Three batters fell on 87. Colin Ingram might have reasonably claimed that it was a good ball that had him caught behind, but Sean Dickson, substitute for the injured Ben Kellaway, swished at his and Andy Gorvin was caught off the glove pulling.
Hutton’s triple incision came in four overs. Chris Cooke edged to third slip, Mason Crane was only half-forward to a ball that hit him in front, and Timm van der Gugten, swinging freely, played on.
Having made such short work of the Glamorgan innings, and with Josh Tongue still awaiting his first bowl of the day, it was something of a surprise, with a lead of 166, that Haseeb Hameed chose not to enforce the follow-on.
Out quickly again – albeit to the sixth ball of van der Gugten’s first over rather than the first – Hameed might have wished he had.
Duckett almost certainly would after the manner of his demise three overs later, largely self-inflicted.
Watching from the non-striker’s end, Duckett committed to a single that was never remotely on as Slater defended into the off side against Ryan Hadley.
After a moment’s confusion, Slater quite rightly decided it would be suicidally risky to run. By that time, Duckett was three quarters of the way down. Dickson, running in from point, had three stumps to aim at and made no mistake.
Glamorgan’s hopes were raised but Clarke and Slater were not parted until the penultimate over of the afternoon.
Clarke, who made 92 in the draw against Somerset last week, hit 18 fours and a six before miscuing Gorvin to mid-off, taking his tally of hundreds for Nottinghamshire to 13 in first-class cricket, one more than he made for Worcestershire.
Slater added 70 to his 60 against Somerset last week and was a little unlucky not to continue, out to a ball from Gorvin that crept under his bat to hit off stump.
Nothing of substance followed the third-wicket pair’s demise. First-innings centurion Jack Haynes was well caught at backward point off van der Gugten and Kyle Verreynne bowled as Gorvin picked up a third wicket.
Liam Patterson-White was held at slip and Josh Tongue leg before as leg-spinner Mason Crane earned belated reward, Carlson having Hutton caught at slip in between.
Report by ECB Reporters’ Network, supported by Rothesay.
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