County Championship: Notts on brink of promotion after four centuries against Durham

Lyndon James' innings took his Championship runs tally for this season to 890

Four Nottinghamshire batters made hundreds as they put one hand on the Division Two trophy by racking up 662-5 declared against Durham in the final match of their County Championship season.

The seventh-highest total in the club's 181-year history was only the second to contain four individual tons, matching the team that made 656-3 declared against Warwickshire in 1928.

After Haseeb Hameed and Matt Montgomery on day one - Montgomery extending his maiden ton to a magnificent 178 - Lyndon James (164 not out) and skipper Steven Mullaney (136) further turned the screw against a chastened Durham attack, although Matty Potts (3-83) and Ben Raine (2-98) both impressed.

Durham's batters then had to face a Nottinghamshire attack boasting England pace bowler Stuart Broad for the first time since April.

They closed on 53-2, still 609 behind, fading light forcing an early close for the second day running.

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

A draw from this match - which already looks assured - will clinch promotion for Nottinghamshire regardless of results elsewhere and a win secures the title.

After Nottinghamshire had started the day on 276-2, they lost Joe Clarke in only the third over, caught at second slip fending a ball from Potts.

Dropped on 27 on Monday evening, he did not add to his 28 overnight and is likely to finish the season without a first-class hundred for the first time in his career.

Montgomery, standing in while Ben Duckett is away with England, looked the part again. Unruffled by a blow to the body from Potts at the start of the day, he reached 150 from 304 balls after hitting 22 fours.

He and the impressive James added 161 for the fourth wicket.

Montgomery's marathon innings ended after more than six and a half hours when he jabbed at one outside off stump from Potts and inside-edged on to his leg stump.

At 438-4, next man Mullaney had licence to assert himself and did so, hitting sixes off Potts and Liam Trevaskis on his way to a 49-ball half-century.

James, meanwhile, completed the third century of his career - all this season - from 158 balls after collecting 13 fours.

Mullaney's third century of the season came off 91 balls with four sixes, which he had increased to seven by the time he was caught behind for 136 off Raine and promptly declared.

James overtook his previous best of 155, accumulating 19 fours in almost five hours at the crease.

As if things could get no worse for Durham, who are without top scorer Michael Jones - away with Scotland - another frontline batsman, David Bedingham, suffered an injury and did not field after tea.

Trevaskis, sent in as an emergency opener, fell leg before to Broad in the sixth over.

As the light faded Mullaney, prompted by the umpires, turned to his spinners to keep playing on a day already extended to compensate for time lost on Monday.

That should have made it easier for Durham to negotiate what remained. Instead, Sean Dickson - in his last match for the county before moving to Somerset - took a huge swing at left-armer Liam Patterson-White and sent the ball off a leading edge to Broad at mid-on.

Nottinghamshire's Lyndon James:

"It has been a great day. To have four guys get a hundred and a total of 650. Durham bowled well first up but we knew as the ball got older we could cash in and it was nice to do that.

"With everything that's going on this week, it is nice to have our last game here. I love batting at Trent Bridge. At times it can be pretty challenging, but if you can get in it is a good place to score runs.

"It was great to have so many partnerships in the innings. To be batting alongside the captain made my life easier. Naturally he scores quite quickly, which makes it simple for me to just go about my business. He played beautifully.

"I've tried not to think about what is at stake in this game. I was thinking about it at Worcester last week and that didn't go too well for us."

Durham interim head coach Neil Killeen:

"It has been a tough couple of days for the lads. We lost Paul Coughlin, who had to go home before the game, and now we've lost David Bedingham, which is not ideal. He dislocated his left shoulder when he dived in the field.

"The physio has managed to pop it back in again but he'll have to have scans before we can assess what the extent of the injury is It is a blow to lose David at any time and when we are facing an uphill task like this it is a big blow.

"Scott Borthwick has a damaged finger, too. He can't bowl, but we are at that time of year when bodies are creaking and we just have to get on with it.

"So it has been a tough couple of days in the dirt for us. The lads have kept going . They've worked really hard and kept running in, especially Matthew Potts, Ben Raine and Liam Trevaskis, who have bowled a lot of overs."

Report supplied by the ECB Reporters' Network.