It was an emotional moment for Bilal Shafayat when he completed only his second championship century for Nottinghamshire and his first since 2002. He sank to his knees and kissed the pitch as though he wished he had never turned his back on it.

Shafayat, the former England Under-19 captain, who was only 16 when, in 2001, he became the youngest player to appear for Nottinghamshire in the championship, left for Northamptonshire four years later, but returned home last season. He did not find it easy but now he has been given the opportunity to solve Nottinghamshire’s problem at the top of the batting order and he went a long way to doing that when he reached his hundred off 166 balls with 19 fours.

Unfortunately, his emotions then got the better of him and he was out in the next over, playing a poor shot outside the off stump against Callum Thorp and edging to the wicketkeeper to trigger a Nottinghamshire collapse that saw them lose four wickets for 22 runs.

“It is my first hundred since I came back so for me it was a small milestone,” he said. “And it has always been special for me playing here because it was a childhood dream. It was difficult against their attack and I just knew I had to keep control of my emotions and that is probably what I did not do when I reached a hundred. One lapse and you are out.”

Chris Read, Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann followed in rapid succession and it was just as well for Nottinghamshire that Mark Ealham and Darren Pattinson put on an improbable 69 for the ninth wicket before Steve Harmison settled an intriguing personal duel with Pattinson with the second new ball.

Durham were without Michael Di Venuto because of a damaged finger when they went in again two runs behind. They were running into trouble when Broad had Paul Wiseman caught behind and bowled Will Smith, but Mark Stoneman and Shivnarine Chanderpaul saw them to the close without further loss.

Scoreboard

Durham: First Innings 266 (W R Smith 85; C E Shreck 4 for 69)

Second Innings
M D Stoneman not out 34
P J Wiseman c Read b Broad 20
W R Smith b Broad 6
S Chanderpaul not out 7
Extras (lb 3, nb 2) 5

Total (2 wkts, 47 overs) 72

Fall of wickets: 1-33, 2-45.

Bowling: Shreck 5-2-13-0; Pattinson 10-2-20-0; Broad 9-5-11-2; Swann 15-8-21-0; Patel 5-3-3-0; Ealham 3-2-1-0.

Nottinghamshire: First Innings (overnight 114-4)
B M Shafayat c Mustard b Plunkett 100
G P Swann lbw b Thorp 37
*†C M W Read b Thorp 4
S C J Broad lbw b Plunkett 0
M A Ealham b Plunkett 33
D J Pattinson c Plunkett b S J Harmison 28
C E Shreck not out 0
Extras (b 2, lb 15, nb 2) 19

Total (81.1 overs) 268

A R Adams did not bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-10, 3-78, 4-99, 5-177, 6-188, 7-189, 8-199, 9-268.

Bowling: S J Harmison 22-6-57-3; Thorp 27-8-77-3; Plunkett 21.1-2-78-3; Benkenstein 5-1-13-1; B W Harmison 6-1-26-0.

Umpires: P Willey and V A Holder.