We are SO back. When I say “we”, I mean that weird little group of us who like to spend our summer days falling asleep in the sun, while someone repeatedly hits a ball with a stick. Cricket is back in Nottingham.
Much of the focus going into the game was around the County Championship return of England opener Ben Duckett, batting at number 3. The left-hander was comfortably one of the best in the world 12 months ago, but courtesy of some well-documented struggles on and off the pitch in Australia, enters 2026 with a huge point to prove.
He didn’t have to wait long for a chance: the first ball of the day saw Haseeb Hameed, one of those discarded England openers whose fate Duckett is looking to avoid, walking back with his off-stump lying on the ground.
Duckett navigated the rest of Timm van der Gugten’s opening over comfortably, but in between two strokes to the boundary, saw an attempted late cut fall just short of the slip cordon. His partner Ben Slater was not so lucky: playing a similar shot, he found the hands of Asa Tribe to fall for a duck.
Back-to-back pulled fours in the sixth over signalled Duckett’s intent, and before long Notts’ early woes were forgotten.
But then they came right back. Four balls into a probing van der Gugten over, Duckett chipped one up to mid-off and Andy Gorvin, tumbling backwards, held on. It was a lively 25 from Duckett, but 25 nonetheless.
Joe Clarke and Kyle Verreynne came, briefly entertained, and promptly left again; Jack Haynes and Liam Patterson-White, the latter promoted to number 7 in the absence of Lyndon James, battled through to lunch.
But barely a minute longer. In the second over after the restart, van der Gugten returned and this time demolished two stumps, ending Patterson-White’s 22-ball vigil and claiming his fourth wicket.
Australian Fergus O’Neill cracked his first and third balls straight back past van der Gugten to the boundary. Despite being subjected to two vigorous appeals early on in his innings, O’Neill kept finding the boundary, and seemed to inspire Haynes to up the tempo too.
About fifteen minutes after I wrote that, Notts scored their next run.
They settled back into things, though, and shortly after reaching the 50-partnership, Haynes found the boundary at backward square leg to bring up his half-century. O’Neill benefitted from a few streaky fours behind square, but it was a cracking cover drive that took him to fifty.
On another day, one where Glamorgan had more luck catching behind the wicket perhaps, the pair’s approach would have been considered reckless; today, we will use the word counterattacking. The only difference being, of course, that it worked.
But all good things come to an end, as O’Neill found out when a ball from Gorvin snuck onto his off-stump. Brett Hutton swung a six over midwicket, and followed that up with three crisp boundaries – securing Notts a first batting point.
Haynes, meanwhile, seemed content to trickle his way through the nineties, but when last man Dillon Pennington strode out, three more were needed for a first hundred of the season. He squeezed a single in the next over, exposing his ex-Worcestershire teammate to two balls. Pennington was left with four to face in the next over, after a nervy moment where Haynes threatened to return for an impossible second. But the number 11 navigated it well – only one Ooh, and no Ahs – before Haynes scampered an easy single to mid-on. What was all the fuss about?
Century reached, Haynes clearly wanted his tea, and was walking back to the pavilion before his loose shot even reached Kiran Carlson at mid-off – his rescue job mostly complete. 279 was hardly imposing, but it could have been a lot worse.
On a day where England’s opening spots were a theme around the country – see Ben McKinney’s barnstorming double-hundred, supported by a century from Alex Lees, or Jamie Smith’s 166 from number 3… even Jack Leach tried his hand at opening, but I don’t think his 6 off 12 will turn the selectors’ heads – it was fitting that we returned to that debate with Asa Tribe, opening for Glamorgan after a successful winter with England Lions.
The Jersey batter might be one of the frontrunners if England do introduce a new face for the Test summer, but the time to impress was now after a tricky first week of the season. Perhaps it’s a sign that he opened his account today identically to Duckett, his potential future international partner – with three towards the Acrisure stand.
But after all that build-up, he literally only scored 3. Thanks Asa.
O’Neill got Eddie Byrom, too, and only conceded one run in his first five overs. Brilliant news for Notts, but a bad sign for England, as the seamer is surely close to an Australian Test debut now.
As beautiful as it is to watch a disciplined, skilled pack of fast bowlers tie down their opponents, it is a bit boring. Sometimes that’s good – but at ten to six on a cold Friday in April, you want a little bit of excitement. Enter Josh Tongue. Arguably England’s best player over the Ashes, he’s an electrifying bowler with a knack for making things happen.
And thankfully he did. Zain-ul-Hassan’s 57-ball resistance was ended with a perfect yorker, two flying bails and a clink.
Still, with Carlson and Colin Ingram at the crease, Glamorgan looked well-poised to make a comeback on day two. Sadly for them, Carlson fell in the penultimate over; with the visitors already missing Ben Kellaway to injury, Notts will smell blood in the morning.
