Durham fall to a three day defeat against unbeaten Rothesay County Championship leaders Surrey by five wickets at Banks Homes Riverside.
Indian slow left-armer, Sai Kishore, took five for 72 as Rory Burns’ side dismissed Durham for 344 in their second innings and Sam Curran made 40 to help Surrey score the 176 runs they needed for their fourth victory of the season.
But this third day did not go entirely according to Surrey’s morning plans. For nearly 45 minutes, the spin bowling of Sai Kishore and Dan Lawrence gave Durham’s overnight pair, Graham Clark and Codi Yusuf, few problems and it was no surprise when Rory Burns took the new ball as soon as it was available. However, neither Dan Worrall nor Jordan Clark, the latter bowling to his brother, could make a breakthrough and it was left to Lawrence to take the first wicket of the day twenty minutes before lunch when Clark inside-edged a sharply turning off-spinner to Ryan Patel at short leg and departed for 42.
But Clark’s 71-run partnership with Yusuf had increased Durham’s lead to 121 and that figure had been nudged up to 136 at the first interval, when the home side were 305 for six, with Yusuf unbeaten on 38.
After lunch, though, Durham lost their last four wickets for 33 runs in ten overs and the magnitude of Surrey’s task became clear. After batting for 149 minutes and facing 117 balls, Yusuf was caught at the wicket by Ben Foakes off Kishore for 43, seven short of what would have been only his second first-class fifty; Bas de Leede was then lbw for five when he pushed forward to a ball from Kishore that slid on with the arm; and the left-handed Ben Raine departed for 27 when he moved a yard or so across his stumps and was hit on the pads when trying to swing Sam Curran to leg.
Kishore then completed his first five-wicket haul for Surrey in his final spell for them this year when Matthew Potts drove him to Patel at short extra-cover and Surrey were left with the task of scoring 176 to secure their fourth win of the season.
Their pursuit began in straightforward fashion. Despite being handicapped by a groin strain and needing Tom Lawes to run for him, Dom Sibley made 35 and had put on 49 with Burns before he was caught at slip by Colin Ackermann off Callum Parkinson. Patel joined his captain and the pair had put on 45 runs either side of tea before both were dismissed in the space of three balls.
Having made 28, Patel was the first to go when he attempted to pull Metthew Potts through the leg side but only skied a catch to Clark at midwicket. Two balls later, Burns was stumped by Robinson off Parkinson for 24. That left Surrey on 94 for three and Durham’s hopes were raised once more.
Not for long, however. Curran and Lawrence took their side to 135 for three, just 41 runs short of their target when the umpires decided the light was too bad and briefly took the teams off the field. When they returned, Surrey’s batsmen accelerated towards their target with a flurry of boundaries. Although Curran was caught at long-on by Ben McKinney off Parkinson when nine runs were needed and Foakes was bowled for seven by Potts in the next over, Clark ended the game by hitting his first ball through the covers for two.
Emilio Gay leads Durham’s recovery on the second day at Banks Homes Riverside but Surrey are still favourites at the halfway stage in Chester Le Street.
Rory Burns’ side were still very much in the ascendant after posting 322 at lunch, thereby giving them a lead of 169, with Dan Lawrence and Jordan Clark making 80s and Ben Raine taking five for 72.
But Gay responded with 99 in Durham’s second innings and the home side finished on 222 for five and they will go into the third morning with a lead of 53 and five wickets to fall. For their part, Surrey will be encouraged by the vital dismissal of Colin Ackermann, who was caught at short leg by Ryan Patel of Lawrence with only four overs left in the day’s play.
In the morning session Surrey extended their first-innings lead from a paltry 29 to a formidable 169 in only 28.1 overs for the loss of their last five wickets. Lawrence was the first to go in the eighth over of the day when he clipped Codi Yusuf to the precisely placed Ackermann at midwicket and departed for a fine 88.
But the loss of a major batter did not disrupt Surrey’s attacking strategy. Jordan Clark and Cameron Steel put on 70 for the seventh wicket before Steel was lbw to Raine for 27, thus becoming the first of four wickets to fall in the half hour before lunch.
Tom Lawes was bowled by Raine for eight, Sai Kishore was caught behind down the leg side off Callum Parkinson for four and Clark was the last to go, caught at long-off by Bas de Leede for a 76-ball 82 that included eight fours and two sixes. That left Raine with his first five-wicket haul of the season but Surrey with what might yet be a match-winning advantage.
Durham’s attempt to wipe out their visitors’ lead and build an advantage of their own got off to a poor start when Alex Lees was lbw to Jordan Clark for 20 in the sixth over.
Ben McKinney and Gay played positively and the former Northants batsman, who took 14 runs off a Tom Lawes over, reached a 42-ball fifty with seven fours and a six. The pair had put on 73 in a little over an hour when McKinney, who had found Kishore’s slow left arm difficult to play, holed out to Lawrence at long-on for 24.
However, Gay and Ackermann took their side to tea, by which time Durham were 143 for two and the deficit had been reduced to 26. Throughout the afternoon Gay had batted with exemplary fluency and there was no doubting Surrey joy when he flicked a full-length ball from Sam Curran straight to Kishore when he was one short of his century and Durham’s advantage was only four.
Ollie Robinson and Ackermann then put on 36 for the fourth wicket before Robinson fell to Kishore for the second time in two days when he tried to work the spinner through the leg side but only lofted a catch off the leading edge to Lawrence, who ran back from mid-off to accept the gift. Ackermann and Clark then seemed to be taking Durham safely to the close but Lawrence’s late strike was a huge fillip to the side looking to win their fourth successive title.
Durham were bowled out for 153 on day one of their Rothesay County Championship with Surrey at Banks Homes Riverside but fought back with five wickets with the ball on the opening day.
Fifteen wickets fell and title-chasing Surrey will be the happier side after ending an eventful three sessions 29 runs ahead of Durham with 5 wickets in hand.
But after dismissing the home side for 153, with Dan Worrall taking four for 31 to counter Colin Ackermann’s 51, the champions were 27 for three before half-centuries by Ryan Patel and Dan Lawrence earned them their advantage.
Surrey ended the day on 182 for five, with Lawrence unbeaten on 68 and their lead could be crucial on a pitch that appears helpful to most bowlers.
The visitors had made their first breakthrough of the day in the seventh over when Ben McKinney clipped Dan Worrall off his toes to Patel, who had been precisely placed at short midwicket for just such an indiscretion.
McKinney’s dismissal for seven was followed 45 minutes later by Emilio Gay’s for 14, Gay’s forward push to a ball from Sam Curran only succeeding in nicking a catch to Ben Foakes.
Worrall trapped Alex Lees lbw on the back foot for 34 and then when Ollie Robinson was beaten and bowled for two by a ball from Sai Kishore which turned sharply past the edge and into the off stump.
That wicket left Durham parlously placed on 68 for four at lunch but things got much worse for the home side in the half-hour after the resumption as they lost three wickets for 16 runs in five overs. Both Graham Clark and Ben Raine were caught at slip by Rory Burns off Worrall, Clark for four, Raine for a single, and those dismissals sandwiched the departure of Bas de Leede, who was lbw to Kishore for nought when trying to sweep.
That trio of setbacks meant Durham had lost six wickets for 40 runs and left the home side on 93 for seven but some balm was applied to their supporters’ wounds by a 53-run stand for the eighth wicket between Ackermann and Matthew Potts, the latter driving and pulling with his usual feisty refusal to be dominated.
Durham’s fightback was brief, though. Ackermann reached his fifty off 128 balls but was caught at mid-on by Kishore off Curran when he miscued a pull. In the next over, Codi Yusuf was bowled by Jordan Clark for a single and the innings ended when Potts, having made 32, attempted a scoop off Curran but merely lobbed the ball to Foakes behind the stumps. Curran returned figures of three for 22 while Kishore took two for 26.
Surrey’s batters did not have their problems to seek in the first hour of their reply. Burns was lbw to Potts for two and Raine was rewarded for his accuracy with the scalps of Dom Sibley, caught behind when driving, for 12 and Curran, whose frenetic ten-ball innings ended when an expansive drive merely nicked a catch to McKinney at first slip and the Surrey all-rounder departed for four.
Those wickets with the new ball reduced Surrey to 27 for three but the next hour or so of the 40-over evening session belonged to Patel and Lawrence, both of whom batted beautifully in the particular styles. Patel reached his fifty with a six off Callum Parkinson to add to his eight fours.
Lawrence, meanwhile, looks as stylish as any batsman in the country at the moment and the pair put on 83 before Patel edged Parkinson to Ackermann at slip and departed for 58. Foakes managed only 11 before losing his off pole to Yusuf but Lawrence reached his fifty off 69 balls four overs before the close and Surrey passed Durham’s total a few balls later, an achievement Lawrence celebrated by off-driving Raine for six.