Mohammad Abbas claimed two wickets as Nottinghamshire’s bowling attack were forced to dig deep for success on a slow-moving second day of their Rothesay County Championship clash with Durham.

Abbas returned figures of 2/74 as Durham, having resumed on two without loss following the one over that was possible last night, batted through the day to reach stumps on 320-4.

Brett Hutton and Liam Patterson-White also took a scalp apiece, with Kyle Verreynne claiming three catches, as the hosts closed 87 in arrears with six first-innings wickets in the bank.

Nightwatcher James Minto hit a maiden First-Class fifty for the hosts, while Alex Lees, who top-scored with 82, and Emilio Gay both posted half-centuries, with the latter unbeaten.

Minto, 17, who had been sent out to face the sole over of Durham’s innings that took place at the very end of the first day, joined Lees in batting through the morning without loss.

Having added 111 for the first wicket, with his fifty posted in 61 balls, Minto was eventually prised out in the second over of the afternoon for 67 by Hutton as he turned a catch to Haseeb Hameed at midwicket.

Lees went to his fifty soon after, with the milestone coming from 96 deliveries and he was joined in the middle by Ben McKinney

He played aggressively in his innings’ early stages, but shortly after, edged an Abbas ball through to Verreynne to depart for 28. 

Lees continued to tick along, with Gay joining him in the middle and the ex-Northamptonshire man helped Durham steer the ship in the face of some tight bowling from the visitors. 

The Durham captain picked up a rare boundary as his innings slowed, before being caught behind by Verreynne for 82 with Patterson-White the bowler. 

Nottinghamshire’s economic bowling continued into the evening session as Gay and new batsman Colin Ackermann struggled to find the boundary.

Gay did break the shackles by becoming the third Durham player to pass fifty in the innings, with his coming from a more attritional 113 balls, just before the advent of the new ball.

It brought about the wicket of Ackermann, who departed for 37 as he edged a beauty from Abbas to Verreynne to give the visitors a late breakthrough. 

Ollie Robinson joined Gay at the crease, taking Durham to the 300 mark and the eventual end of the day with an unbroken partnership of 45 in the day’s final ten overs.