Bad light and persistent rain brought an early end to the Rothesay County Championship match at the Banks Homes Riverside with Worcestershire on 32-1 in their quest to score 253 to beat Durham.
Only nine balls were bowled after lunch but the draw was not agreed until 3.40. After the match, Durham’s players were presented with the Division Two trophy.
The result means that Worcestershire become the first side since May to avoid losing to Durham in Championship cricket while the Division Two champions’ run of successive victories ends at six
Resuming on 161 for six and with a lead of 178, Durham lost their last four wickets for 74 runs in 16.1 eventful overs.
Ollie Robinson was leg-before to Ben Allison’s eighth ball of the morning for 22 and Ben Raine fell for just four runs to the same bowler in his next over when he drove Allison straight to Adam Hose at cover.
Durham’s lead was only 204 when Kasey Aldridge was bowled for 34 by a ball that kept low from Tom Taylor but Matthew Potts and Callum Parkinson put on 48 for the last wicket before Potts was bowled for 35 by Fateh Singh’s first ball of the morning.
Worcestershire’s quest to become the first team to defeat Durham in red-ball cricket this season got off to a poor start when Jake Libby was bowled by a shooter from Ben Raine for 10 in the sixth over.
However, drizzle and bad light stopped play nine balls into the afternoon session. Tea was taken at 2.40 and there was an inspection at 3.40, after which the draw was agreed. Worcestershire take 15 points from the game to Durham’s 14.
Durham end their season away at Lancashire next season whereas Worcestershire play Derbyshire at New Road.
Day 3: Durham 465 and 161-6 v Worcestershire 448
Adam Hose had made an invaluable century in Worcestershire’s first-innings 448, which represented a gutsy reply to Durham’s 465, Brett D’Oliveira’s seamers reduced the home side to 161 for six, at the close, leaving the Division Two champions with a lead of 178 ahead of the final day.
The undoubted star of the session was 22-year-old debutant George O’Connor, who is only playing in this match as a substitute for Ben Gibbon. O’Connor bowled Mayank Agarwal for nine in his first spell and had Ben Stokes caught on the point boundary for 12
In the morning session, Worcestershire lost two wickets but saved the follow-on with ease and reached lunch on 376 for seven, just 89 runs in arrears. The chief contributor to that fightback, Hose, brought up his first century of the season with a single off Matthew Potts and after facing 218 balls, 12 of which he hit for boundary fours.
Both Durham wickets were taken by Stokes, who had Henry Cullen caught at slip by Colin Ackermann 16 before dismissing Hose, who was caught behind by Robinson for 105.
Tom Taylor joined Matthew Waite and the pair put on 85 in untroubled fashion either side of lunch before Waite was leg-before to Ben Raine for 28. Taylor, though, reached his first fifty of the season before Stokes dismissed him, also leg-before, for 61. That wicket gave the former England captain his first five-wicket haul in first-class cricket at Chester-le-Street since 2014.
And Stokes completed his six for 94 return when he had Fateh Singh caught at long leg by Will Rhodes for 26, a dismissal that ended what might have been the first stand between substitutes in Championship cricket. Singh had replaced Usama Mir, who has a back problem. His last-wicket partner, O’Connor faced his first ball from Stokes and was was six not out when the innings ended but that modest contribution was by no means the end of the 22-year-old’s day.
Worcestershire’s excellent showing in this match continued after tea. In the fourth over after the resumption, Waite bowled Ben McKinney for 38 with a ball that kept low and four overs later the fine all-rounder inflicted the same indignity on Alex Lees, who lost his off stump to another grubber.
But the highlight of the session, and probably the day, came in O’Connor’s sixth over from the Finchale End when he bowled Agarwal for nine with a fine that nipped away off the seam and knocked out the off stump.
Encouraged by the dismissal of Durham’s first-innings centurion, Worcestershire’s bowlers continued to attack the stumps and it paid dividends for them. Ackermann made only four before he played around a ball from Ben Allison and was leg-before and Rhodes lost his off stump to Taylor when he had made 25.
That wicket left Durham on 114 for five but things got even better for Worcestershire and for O’Connor. Having made 12, Stokes skied a catch to Daniel Lategan on the point boundary. Durham reached the close on 161 for six with Kasey Aldridge on 25 not out and Ollie Robinson unbeaten on 19.
Day 2: Durham 465 v Worcestershire 270-5
Durham strike twice late on day two after Worcestershire’s batters defied the Division Two champions to share the honours on the second day of the Rothesay County Championship match at Banks Homes Riverside.
Replying to the home side’s 465, Brett D’Oliveira’s side were 270 for five at the close with Adam Hose on 87 not out. However, the visitors received lost two late wickets, including that D’Oliveira was bowled by Matthew Potts with the new ball for 82 to end his fourth-wicket stand of 179 with Hose.
But the day was also memorable for the severe examination the Worcestershire pair withstood from Stokes, who ended play with figures of 20-4-56-2. And they don’t tell half the tale.
In the morning session, Durham’s last three wickets added a further 28 runs before the home side were bowled out for 465. Ollie Robinson ensured his side collected a maximum haul of five bonus points but he was last out for 97 when he attempted to drive Tom Taylor over mid-off.
That wicket meant Taylor finished the innings with three for 66. Matthew Waite who had earlier bowled Matthew Potts for nought, knocking out off and middle stumps in the process, took three for 64.
Worcestershire openers Daniel Lategan and Jake Libby began their side’s first innings in positive fashion and had taken their side to 60 without loss after 14 overs at lunch. However, the visitors lost three wickets in the first hour of the afternoon session, two of them to Stokes, who bowled for over an hour, taking two for 17 in a typically unsparing eight-over spell.
Lategan was caught at slip by Kasey Aldridge for 28 when trying to drive Stokes and Rehaan Edavalath followed him half an hour later for just a single when he attempted to work Stokes on the leg side but only miscued a chance to midwicket which Colin Ackermann sprinted in to scoop up.
Between those successes for the home side, Libby had reached fifty for the sixth time this season but the Worcestershire talisman was soon leg-before to Potts for 55, the ball keeping low and jagging back to give Ant Harris one of his easier decisions of the season.
That wicket left the Pears on 90, still 375 in arrears and things would have been even worse for them had Ben McKinney not dropped Hose at slip off Stokes before he had scored.
The Worcestershire batsman profited mightily from that let-off. He and D’Oliveira gradually batted with more assurance and Hose reached his fifty off 94 balls with seven boundaries. At tea, Worcestershire were 175 for three and perhaps it was wise if the spectators took a little refreshment given the evening session they were about to watch.
Switching to the Finchale End, Stokes bowled for well over an hour for the second time in the day, his analysis for the spell reading 10-1-22-0.
But the W0rcestershire pair passed their own test and set a new record for their county’s fourth-wicket in first-class cricket against Durham, eclipsing the 134-run stand shared by Tom Moody and Gavin Haynes at New Road in 1994.
Just when it seemed Hose and D’Oliveira would survive until stumps, the Pears skipper lost his middle stump to Potts’s first delivery with the new ball. Nightwatchman Ben Allison was then leg before to Ben Raine for nought in the final over of the day, further vindicating Alex Lees’s decision to take the new cherry.
Mayank Agarwal delighted the end-of-season crowd at the Banks Homes Riverside by making a majestic 177 to help Division Two champions, Durham, dominate the opening day of their Rothesay County Championship match against Worcestershire.
Agarwal made good on head coach Ryan Campbell’s pledge that his undefeated team would not let up in their final two matches, even though both promotion and the title are secure.
By the close, Durham were 437 for seven and therefore 13 runs short of collecting a full haul of five batting bonus points. Nevertheless, the day’s cricket had suggested some of the reasons why they have dominated Division Two this season. Ben Gibbon was the most successful Worcestershire bowler with three for 92, although Matthew Waite, who took two for 54, was the most impressive.
Having been inserted, Durham got to lunch on 117 for three after 29 eventful overs. Alex Lees certainly found boundaries easy to come by and got to 40 before his opening partner, Ben McKinney, reached double figures, but the home skipper was then caught at slip off Gibbon without adding to his score.
Gibbon then trapped Will Rhodes leg before on the front pad for five and McKinney was bowled by a fine ball from Waite for 19. That wicket left Durham uncertainly placed on 74 for three but the arrival of Ben Stokes changed the tempo of the contest.
As if competing with each other, Agarwal and Stokes hit a total of 20 boundary fours in a 15.3 over partnership of 105 either side of lunch. Agarwal reached his fifty off 50 balls whereas Stokes took 11 balls fewer but there was little to choose between the pair and during the last half-hour of their stand, Durham’s attack was eviscerated.
The visitors’ torture ended for a while when Stokes swung across the line at a straight ball from Gibbon and was leg-before on 50 but Colin Ackermann picked up the pace and put on 71 with Agarwal before he was caught at slip by Ben Allison off Tom Taylor for 27.
Agarwal’s 19th boundary, a back cut off Allison, took him to his first Durham hundred in his fifth innings since he was signed as a short-term replacement for David Bedingham until the end of the season. He had batted for 156 minutes and faced 121 balls and he was not finished yet.
In company with Ollie Robinson, Agarwal added a further 149 for the sixth wicket and Worcestershire were left cursing the moment when Gibbon dropped the sharp and solitary chance he offered at midwicket in Brett D’Oliveira’s first over after tea.
Agarwal was 109 and the total was 293 when that chance went down. A further 106 runs had been added and Durham were thus on the verge of collecting their fourth batting point when the Indian batsman was finally dismissed, caught at the wicket by Henry Cullen off Tom Taylor in the third over with the new ball.
Waite picked up a deserved second wicket when he had Kasey Aldridge leg before on five but the day end with Robinson unbeaten on 78, having reached his second fifty of the season and his first since June.