The day started well for Durham, with Chris Rushworth picking up three wickets within the first 40 minutes of the morning session.
Mark Wagh (44) was out off the first ball of the day after he was caught at second slip by Michael Di Venuto. Notts were 199-5 after Samit Patel, who had struggled to settle at the crease against Stephen Harmison’s bowling in the previous over, was trapped lbw for 4.
Rushworth’s third wicket was that of Stephen Mullaney (24) who was Di Venuto’s second catch of the day.
Notts were 226-6 when Chris Read joined Ali Brown at the wicket. Durham were unable to break the partnership early on and the pair went on to post a seventh wicket stand of 237 before Brown was eventually caught behind off the bowling of Plunkett for 134.
Franks was caught behind for 64 giving Stephen Harmison his first wicket of the match and bringing about an early tea. During the break Notts declared on 559-8 with a lead of 341 having secured themselves 8 bonus points.
Michael Di Venuto and Kyle Coetzer started well in response for Durham scoring at five an over before rain stopped play for twenty minutes at 4.40pm.
The pair returned to the crease and were one run short of their fifty partnership when Di Venuto was caught at second slip by Edwards off Pattinson for 29.
Durham were 69-2 after Smith (4) was caught behind off Mullaney’s fifth ball when he came on to bowl the twelfth over of the session.
Chris Rushworth joined Kyle Coetzer in the middle as nightwatchman after Benkenstein was dismissed, caught at second slip by Edwards off Franks for 4, with 4.1 overs remaining in the day and Durham 84-3.
Coetzer was out lbw to Shreck for 45 with Blackwell and Rushworth facing the final eight balls of the session. At the close of play Durham were 88-4, trailing Notts by 253.
“We knew that if we could get one or two early wickets then we had a chance of staying in the game and if we batted well getting ourselves into a decent position on a wicket that is pretty helpful to bowlers.
“We got the start we wanted Chris Rushworth, who has been excellent very early in his career, he did the job for us but a mixture of a little bit of ill-discipline in the bowling and some aggressive batting from Chris Read and Ali Brown who took the initiative really well. Notts are a team with a lot of direction and a lot of purpose, their intent was obvious and we didn’t have enough answers for them.”
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