County Championship: Notts hold out for draw against Glamorgan

Nottinghamshire's Joe Clarke will play for Welsh Fire in The Hundred this season

Nottinghamshire battled through the final day to hold out for a draw against Glamorgan on 259-4.

Joe Clarke (95) and Lyndon James (76 not out) did the bulk of the survival work with the visitors never attacking a huge target of 455.

Glamorgan's bowlers could find no life in the sun-baked pitch.

The result leaves Notts still top of division two, while Glamorgan move to within a point of second-placed Middlesex.

Glamorgan made an early breakthrough when Matt Montgomery was given lbw to James Harris for three but Ben Slater and Clarke dug in.

There were few alarms for most of the first session until the introduction of Colin Ingram, with Slater on 48 chipping a return catch in the leg-spinner's first over to leave Notts 88-3 at lunch.

Clarke and James batted out the afternoon session in composed fashion, although Clarke appeared to give a sharp chance to leg-slip off Michael Neser on 48.

Occasional spinner Kiran Carlson came on straight after tea and had Clarke given out caught behind with his first ball, to the obvious displeasure of the batsman.

Then it was Glamorgan's turn to look baffled as they had a caught-behind appeal against Steven Mullaney on 20 rejected.

But that was the end of the drama as James and his captain blocked their way resolutely through the final overs for a creditable draw without leading batsman Ben Duckett and bowler James Pattinson, as Glamorgan called a halt with 9.2 overs left.

Nottinghamshire make the short trip to Derby on Tuesday 19 July, while Glamorgan are at Leicester on the following day.

Glamorgan captain David Lloyd told BBC Sport Wales:

"It was a very tough. long day for the bowlers and weirdly the pitch seemed to get better. It was always going to be tricky to bowl them out but the effort was spot on.

"We were quite unlucky at times not to get a wicket, but all in all from day two at tea (Notts 250-4 in their first innings) we did amazingly to pull it back and get in the position we got in."

Coach Matthew Maynard added:

"The efforts were fantastic all day, fair play to the skipper he tried different combinations and created some half-chances, but we were amazed the wicket didn't do a bit more and their batsmen really got stuck in."

"There's still five games to go, a lot of points up for grabs, but a lot will be determined by our (overseas player) recruitment for September when we lose Michael Neser, who's been fantastic, and Colin Ingram who had a pre-existing contract with the CPL (Caribbean Premier League).

"We might try to look for something slightly different, I believe one announcement will be made fairly shortly which is great news for us going into September, the other is still a fair way away."

Notts batter Lyndon James said:

"It was probably a pretty big day in the context of both our seasons with Middlesex having lost, so we're happy to come out with a draw. As a team, days like this help you grow as individuals and as a team.

"Gritty, grinding days aren't that pretty when you're not scoring at high strike rates or playing nice shots but you've got to stick in there, build partnerships and bat time so it was nice to do that."