Warwickshire go top despite Verreynne century

Rothesay County Championship, Division One, Trent Bridge (day four)

Warwickshire 459

Nottinghamshire 279 & 537-7 dec (f/o): Hameed 115, Verreynne 115, Duckett 93, Clarke 82; Webster 2-55

Notts (11 pts) draw with Warwickshire (16 pts)

Match scorecard

Champions Nottinghamshire built on their third-day fightback to ensure that one of this year's potential title rivals left Trent Bridge with no more than a draw as Warwickshire's bid to force a win on the final day came to nothing.

South Africa Test wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne made 115 and Joe Clarke 82 as Nottinghamshire, following on, racked up 537-7 in the second innings of their County Championship clash before the captains agreed to call it a day.

The fifth-wicket pair added 180 in the largest of three century partnerships in the innings.

Clarke, who made 94 in the first innings, swelled his personal tally for the season to 449 as the leading run-scorer in the competition.

Notts had been 310-4 overnight, leading by 130. Warwickshire had created a potential opportunity for themselves by taking three wickets in the last hour of Sunday's play. To turn that into a win, though, they needed realistically to make similar inroads on the final morning. Verreynne and Clarke denied them any.

Haseeb Hameed (116) and Ben Duckett (93) gave the second innings strong foundations with a 150-run partnership for the second wicket on Sunday, but both fell before the close, giving Warwickshire's bowlers fresh impetus for the final day.

With a ball that was only seven overs old on the resumption, there were promising early signs for the visitors as Ethan Bamber forced an inside edge by Verreynne that did not miss the stumps by much and Chris Woakes made a confident appeal for leg before against the same batter, which probably failed only on height.

Yet as the session developed, Verreynne and Clarke looked increasingly secure. The lead had grown to 232 by lunch, at which point the partnership was worth 126 and both protagonists had half-centuries under their belts.

There was much to commend about the commitment of all six Warwickshire seamers in trying to make something happen but Clarke and Verreynne seldom allowed their concentration to waver, which was particularly important when the sunshine of the morning gave way to cloud cover for a period after lunch.