Joe Clarke's epic double-hundred blunts Warwickshire for fighting draw

Joe Clarke turned his first red-ball century for 21 months into a maiden double-hundred as Nottinghamshire denied Warwickshire victory in an LV= Insurance County Championship match that the visitors had dominated for the first three days.

Thanks to Clarke's marathon unbeaten 229, spanning eight hours and 38 minutes, Nottinghamshire clawed back a deficit of 416 on first innings after following on to deal a blow to Warwickshire's title ambitions.

The Bears move above Hampshire and Essex to go second in the Division One table with the 12 points they take from the draw but have ground to make up on defending champions Surrey, whose extraordinary win over Kent at Canterbury gives them a 32-point lead, albeit from seven matches to Warwickshire's six.

Clarke was dropped at slip on 128 in the morning session - a difficult chance though one that needed to be taken on a slow, flat track where opportunities for the bowlers were in short supply. There were not many errors otherwise from the former England Lions player, who hit 35 fours and a six from 365 balls faced.

Chris Rushworth led the Warwickshire attack manfully, taking three for 73, with Hasan Ali two for 68 but the resolve shown by Nottinghamshire's lower-order batters in occupying the crease in support of Clarke was crucial.

Clarke, whose 12 first-class hundreds in his first three seasons at Worcestershire earmarked him as a future star, has struggled for consistency since moving to Trent Bridge. He posted three centuries in his first season in 2019 but only three more in 55 innings since then but there was no doubting his quality on this occasion.

Having resumed with a deficit of 149 and the second new ball available two overs into the final morning, Nottinghamshire knew that if they could emerge from the opening session without sustaining too much damage, their chances of seeing out a draw would rise appreciably.

With the help of that one important slice of luck for Clarke, they achieved their objective, reaching lunch with just one casualty and Warwickshire's advantage down to 75. The one man out was Steven Mullaney, the Nottinghamshire skipper, who was bowled offering no shot as Rushworth, the country's leading wicket-taker, found rare deviation off the pitch in the 10th over with the new ball, which zipped back to hit off stump.

The fifth-wicket stand had matched the fourth in adding exactly 100 runs, Mullaney having batted for more than two hours for his 48 runs.

The Clarke let-off came three overs later, the batter slashing at one outside off stump from Will Rhodes in a moment of vulnerability out of character with the rest of his innings. To be fair to Rob Yates, who missed the chance at slip, the ball came off the edge at head height with enough momentum to reach the boundary even after passing through his hands to his right. Nonetheless, Nottinghamshire would have been six-down for 292 had it stuck, so it felt like a big moment.

Unruffled, Clarke took two off the next ball to go past his previous best for Nottinghamshire (133), before restoring his equilibrium with another classically executed straight drive for four. He swept Danny Briggs for the first six of his innings and was on 166 from 341 for five at lunch. Warwickshire, having come up with a game-plan overnight to take the six remaining wickets in two sessions, were already significantly behind schedule.

Rushworth made things happen again after the interval, bowling Tom Moores with a ball that perhaps kept a tad low. At 361 for six, the home side were still 55 behind, with Warwickshire now sensing an opportunity.

But Clarke found another resolute partner in Calvin Harrison, who was playing in only his second Championship match yet was unfazed even as Warwickshire at times brought every fielder close in.

It was with thanks to Harrison keeping his nerve as solidly as Moores and Mullaney before him that Clarke was able to bide his time, sweeping his 318th ball faced to the boundary off Danny Briggs to go to 203, a moment that saw sustained applause from the home team balcony but at first a mere tap of the gloves between the seventh-wicket pair before Clarke, determined to see the job through to the end, briefly raised his bat in acknowledgement of the spectators.

Nottinghamshire moved into the lead for the first time in the match shortly afterwards and were 20 in front at tea with 36 overs to play, still time for Warwickshire to seal a win if they could break the seventh-wicket partnership soon afterwards.

Yet another important chance was missed, with the lead just 40 and 30 overs remaining, when Harrison, on 33, miscued a pull against Rushworth but was dropped on the long leg boundary by Olly Hannon-Dalby, and it was enough for Warwickshire skipper Will Rhodes to offer his handshake on a draw at 5pm, Harrison finishing on 38 not out having helped add 103 runs in two hours and 19 minutes at the crease.