Haseeb Hameed flew past the landmark of 1,000 Rothesay County Championship runs for the 2025 season in style with a third century of the summer as Nottinghamshire fought back on Day Two against Somerset at Trent Bridge.
Hameed made a fluent unbeaten 103 as Notts, having faced down a Somerset total of 338-4 at the end of the first day, fought back to bowl the West Country outfit out for 438 before reaching 189-2 at stumps, leaving them 249 in arrears.
Joe Clarke accompanied the captain to the close on 26 not out, while Freddie McCann contributed 48 as he and Hameed shared in a second-wicket stand worth 101.
It is the fourth occasion, and the second in a row, that Hameed, still only 28 years of age, has hit the milestone, and he has achieved it this year with three full matches still to be played and at a colossal average of 83.58.
The day had started for the hosts, though, with the ball in hand, and their first order of the day was to remove unbeaten centurion James Rew.
That was a task they accomplished early on, though not before also taking the wicket of nightwatcher Jack Leach.
He fell from the first ball of the day to Dillon Pennington, who finished with figures of 3/71, after being languidly caught by a diving Lyndon James at gully for a three-ball duck.
Ten overs later, Rew had added only four to his overnight score before making a mess of a pull off Pennington and getting an edge through to Clarke behind the stumps to depart for 166.
Sensing an opportunity, Notts grabbed the visitors’ lower-order by the scruff of the neck to take a further three wickets for just 42 runs, as Tom Banton, Archie Vaughan, and Migael Pretorius all came and went.
Banton and Vaughan were both caught behind by Clarke, off Brett Hutton for 14 and James for 15, respectively.
Meanwhile, Calvin Harrison took a simple return catch off his own bowling to account for Pretorius for eight and claim his first Championship wicket for Notts in 2025.
After overcoming a stout last wicket partnership with the removal of last man, and former Notts seamer, Jake Ball for 24, Somerset’s innings had been wrapped up with the loss of seven wickets for 100 runs.
The hosts then deployed their own batting ability with a clear target in mind, as despite the early loss of Ben Slater, bowled by Craig Overton, Hameed and McCann at times scored at comfortably above 4.5 per over.
Both complemented each other well and were scoring at similar rates; when Hameed went to his 87-ball half-century, McCann was well into the forties himself.
A similar landmark was not to be for the 20-year-old, though, as he fell two short of his half-century when caught behind by Rew off Ball.
The duo had, though taken Notts beyond three figures, and Hameed ploughed on alongside Joe Clarke to take the hosts past 150 while anticipation grew around Trent Bridge.
Having deployed a delicious straight six off Vaughan to move from 92 to 98 with one stroke, he was left agonisingly waiting a further 13 balls for his hundred, including nine on 99.
Patience is a virtue, though, and it is one that Hameed has in spades; he showed no fatigue during his wait and eventually belted Vaughan straight and flat for the four that took him to his ton.
It was late when he did so, and with only 2.1 overs of the day remaining at that point, Clarke added a pair of singles before the close arrived with Notts in a strong position.
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