County Championship: Hameed & Montgomery give Notts strong start against Durham

Haseeb Hameed has now scored 1,186 Championship runs this season at an average of 56.47

Haseeb Hameed and Matthew Montgomery hit centuries as Nottinghamshire put together exactly the opening day they had hoped for as they seek to clinch promotion to Division One in their final County Championship match of the season.

Hameed's 115 and Montgomery's 101 not out - his maiden first-class century - helped Nottinghamshire close on 276-2 against Durham, knowing that a draw will guarantee they go up and that a victory wins the Division Two title.

Montgomery, a 22-year-old right-handed batter who is covering for England's Ben Duckett in the number three slot, is in only his fourth first-class match for the county, but already looks an outstanding prospect.

Hameed's reputation is long established. This was his fourth century of the season and his 12th all told, his 1,186 runs this summer almost matching the 1,198 he made for Lancashire in his sensational first full season in 2016.

• Relive the first day's Championship action as it happened

Nottinghamshire's plans had the perfect start when the toss allowed them the choice to bat first and a largely comfortable morning session on a pitch tailored to their ends saw them progress to 94-1 at lunch.

The Durham seam attack, led by Ben Raine and England's Matty Potts, induced a few streaky moments with the new ball but only one wicket.

Ben Slater, who had been dropped on 18 at second slip off Ollie Gibson, was caught behind for 23 off Raine, via what looked like an inside edge.

Otherwise, there was very little in the pitch for any of the bowlers, including spinners Liam Trevaskis and George Drissell.

When Hameed drove Trevaskis handsomely through the extra cover area for his ninth boundary, taking a single next ball for an 89-ball fifty, a substantial total already looked on the cards.

The next 30 overs did nothing to change that assessment and Hameed duly completed his fourth hundred of the campaign off 145 balls.

There had been 14 fours, no chances offered and no reason to believe he would not still be there at tea, but he fell two overs ahead of the break as Potts, six overs into his third spell of the day, moved it enough to square Hameed up a touch and find the outside edge, with Scott Borthwick diving to his left at second slip to take a very good catch.

The second-wicket partnership added 180, a record for that wicket for Nottinghamshire against Durham and Montgomery, batting with maturity and assuredness, had been no junior partner.

He had 12 fours to his name in his 84 at tea - already his highest first-class score - and completed the hundred by cutting Trevaskis for an easy single. He had hit 14 fours and faced 198 balls.

Against the second new ball, Joe Clarke survived a chance to the wicketkeeper off Potts on 27 before bad light forced an early finish, with 11.3 overs remaining.

Nottinghamshire batter Matthew Montgomery:

"We couldn't have asked for much more from the day. To put in a start like this was really important, although it is only one quarter of the game.

"With what is at stake this week, there is always a tendency to check the scores going around but we as a group made an agreement to just focus on what's happening to us, take it day by day, session by session and even ball by ball.

"For me, I have a really nice opportunity with Ben Duckett being away. I'm loving it so far, hopefully I can continue to put in some performances and give the selectors some difficult decisions."

Durham captain Scott Borthwick:

"We were actually going to bowl first, so 270-2 when they've elected to bat will look a bit better than 270-2 if we'd elected to bowl.

"Their two openers played really well but Matty Potts bowled nicely and we controlled the run rate, especially before lunch. After that, the pitch hardened up and got better, with a bit more pace.

"We are a bowler light because Paul Coughlin had to go home this morning because of a family issue. But that spell Matty bowled just before tea was incredible. He kept running in with a ball that was 50 overs old and deserved that wicket."

Report supplied by the ECB Reporters' Network.