County Championship: Joe Clarke hits career-best 229 not out as Notts draw with Warwickshire

Joe Clarke turned his first red-ball century for 21 months into a maiden double century as Nottinghamshire denied County Championship title hopefuls Warwickshire at Trent Bridge.

Clarke batted for eight hours and 38 minutes to finish unbeaten on 229 as Notts clawed back a first-innings deficit of 416 to draw on 464-6.

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, although they have a game in hand, they have ground to make up on defending champions Surrey, whose extraordinary win over Kent at Canterbury gives them a 32-point lead.

Clarke was dropped by Rob Yates, a two-handed chance at slip on 128 in the morning session - but there were not many errors otherwise from the England Lions player, who hit 35 fours and a six in his 365-ball knock.

Chris Rushworth, the country's leading wicket-taker, led the Warwickshire attack manfully, taking 3-73, while Hasan Ali's 2-68 gave him five wickets in the match.

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 had made only three more in 55 innings since.

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

The one man out before lunch was Nottinghamshire skipper Steven Mullaney, who was bowled offering no shot to Rushworth.

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

The Clarke let-off came three overs later, when he slashed outside off stump from Will Rhodes but the ball came to Yates at head height with enough momentum to reach the boundary.

Clarke took two off the next ball to go past his previous best for Nottinghamshire (133) before Rushworth claimed the only other wicket of the day, bowling Tom Moores with a ball that perhaps kept a tad low.

At 361-6, the home side were still 55 behind, with Warwickshire sensing an opportunity. But Clarke found another resolute partner in Calvin Harrison, playing in only his second Championship match, who hit 38 in an unbroken stand of 103 in 38 overs.

Nottinghamshire head coach Peter Moores:

"It is a significant innings for Joe Clarke. A couple of games ago he made what really sensible adjustments to his game that he thought would give him a bit more control and in the last three games, against Northants, Essex and now he has batted with an understanding of red-ball cricket that is really going to help him be consistent.

"He will take a huge amount from this. What he wanted to do was to stay in the same tempo from start to finish, which is why you didn't see a big celebration when he got to a hundred or even 200. Credit to any batsman who can remain pretty much the same from ball one to ball 300-plus. That style of innings is something we often see from sub-continent batters, such as Jayawardene or Sangakkara.

"He has always been a good young player but now he is maturing as a consistent player. He wants to play the kind of exciting cricket we have seen from him, especially in T20, where he has all the shots. But to play in an exciting style but also have that consistency is a big challenge.

"We've seen it in another of our players, Ben Duckett, who has got into the England side as a player who can score at a quick rate but is also consistent. Joe is a different kind of player but he is on a similar journey. He wants to play exciting cricket but he knows he has to do it on a consistent basis if he is to go on to higher honours."

Warwickshire head coach Mark Robinson:

"We are disappointed, because we bossed the game really. We threw everything at them on a wicket that from lunchtime on day three onwards was flat and getting slower and slower.

"But Joe Clarke was magnificent. He came through some great spells from Chris Rushworth and Hasan Ali by showing a lot of character, so I take my hat off to him. He is a fine player.

"I'm proud of the way we have played over the four days. We set the game up brilliantly but just couldn't get over the line. We needed to get Clarke out really because then we would have been into the bowlers with still time in the game to get a result.

"In these sorts of conditions and situations you need to take every half chance when it comes. We had to have the slips in really close because there were a number of edges that didn't carry, and then Joe Clarke has a slash at one that bursts through Yates's hands, one of the safest pairs of hands in the country. And on that kind of surface you can't afford to give people any second chances."

Report supplied by ECB Reporters' Network.