Durham began day four with Chris Rushworth and Ian Blackwell at the crease and 87 on the board. Blackwell was caught by Shreck off the bowling of Pattinson early on for 15, leaving Durham 104-5.
Ben Stokes came to the crease and put on a patient fifty partnership with Phil Mustard following the dismissal of nightwatchman Chris Rushworth who was caught behind, also to Pattinson.
Mustard was stumped by Read off the bowling of Mullaney for 23 just before lunch with Durham 180-7 at the break.
Ben Stokes passed his fifty (off 80 balls) with his tenth four, and shortly after he and Ben Harmison reached their fifty partnership (off 73 balls), pushing Durham to 217.
Stokes sailed through the nineties to reach his maiden first class century (123 balls), passing the mark with real flair hitting a four, followed by two consecutive sixes and another four off the bowling of Patel.
Liam Plunkett joined Ben Harmison in the middle with Durham 266-8 after Stokes was caught by Mullaney off Franks for 106.
Plunkett added three runs to the total before he was caught by Edwards at second slip off Franks. Stephen Harmison joined Ben at the crease for an over before a light shower delayed play. The Durham batsmen and the Notts side returned to the field for a few overs before more rain caused tea to be taken early.
Play resumed after the tea break and it was Pattinson who took the final wicket, bowling Ben Harmison for 18. Durham lost by an innings and 62 runs, picking up three bonus points during the first innings.
Ben Stokes, speaking after the game, said, “I was over the moon to get my century, it was a good personal performance. I started off when I first went in with a scratching start, the longer I was at the crease the easier the runs started to come.
I got hold of a few which went for six which gave me more confidence, but that could also have been my downfall. It’s nice to get a score after the start of the season, I’ve had 20’s and 30’s and I’ve finally progressed to make a big score, which I’m happy with. It’s been a bit frustrating, getting out in the last three or four innings I’ve had.
Batting inbetween Blackie and Colonel does take a little bit of pressure off me when I first go in, I can get myself settled in and get myself a bit of confidence.”
On the match against Notts captain Will Smith said, “Where we are in the table now probably reflects the kind of cricket we’ve been playing and we’ll all be honest enough to realise that we need to put things right and get better individually and if we do that we’ll get better as a team.
“We’re not going to make excuses about injuries. They don’t help but we believe that the team we have at the moment is good enough to win games in four day cricket and everyone in the squad is good enough to win the games. We’re clearly not doing well enough or playing to the standards we’ve set ourselves over the last few years so we’ll have to address it.”
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