Richardson stranded just short of hundred

Michael Richardson narrowly missed out on his first LV= County Championship century of the season as Durham enjoyed the better of the exchanges on the second day of their match against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge.

The 28-year old wicketkeeper was unbeaten on 96, as Durham's first innings closed on 372, giving them a healthy advantage of 168 over the hosts. Brett Hutton was the pick of the home attack, recording a career-best 5 for 77 to minimise the damage.

When Notts batted for a second time they reached 138 for 4 by the close, still 30 runs adrift. Graham Onions took three of the four wickets to fall, giving him eight in the match so far.

Richardson admitted: "I was a little frustrated not to get there. I was just always a little bit behind the eight-ball and needed the tail to do something special with me against the second new ball but it was quite tough to come in at that time because Hutton was swinging it a long way. I was disappointed to fall short, I had a ball to get it with and probably tried to hit it too hard.

Hutton said: ""It was an interesting bit of cricket there towards the end of there innings, Richardson was obviously turning down a few runs to try and keep the tail away from the bowling so that he could get to his hundred but it didn't quite work out."

Inside the first hour of the day both Scott Borthwick and Paul Collingwood fell in similar fashion to give Notts an early boost. Luke Wood induced Borthwick to chop on for 63, then Collingwood failed to get his bat out of the way as he attempted to leave alone a delivery from Hutton, for 40.

Richardson exploited the lack of a third man by running a succession of early boundaries down there, during his fifth wicket stand of 57 but it ended abruptly when partner Gordon Muchall became a little too ambitious against Samit Patel. He charged at the spinner and only just lifted him over the head of Michael Lumb at mid on. The fielder went back half a dozen paces in expectation and gratefully accepted the repeat offering to remove the dumb-struck batsman for 32.

Durham surged past a fourth batting point before Chris Read turned to Hutton to arrest the momentum and the seamer struck twice, having Ryan Pringle caught at slip for 19, before bowling Jamie Harrison for nought.

Barry McCarthy was then bowled by Luke Wood and Chris Rushworth nicked Hutton to slip as the home side enjoyed their best period of the match.

Richardson was on 92 when Onions arrived in the middle but he could only add four more before losing the strike and Hutton quickly polished off the innings as the No 11 nicked through to Chris Read.

Jake Libby and Brendan Taylor added 53 when the home side batted for a second time, with Harrison nipping one back to bowl the former Zimbabwe international.

Libby edged Onions to slip and the same bowler then removed Steven Mullaney and Lumb in quick succession to leave Notts with it all to do on the third day.