Close, Day Four: Durham (421; Jennings 129, Burnham 74, McCarthy 51, Stokes 51) drew with Hampshire (472 & 174/4; Carberry 59)
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The arrival of rain in mid-afternoon confirmed the draw in the Specsavers County Championship match between Durham and Hampshire at Emirates Riverside.
After resuming 60 ahead on nine without loss, the visitors opted for safety as Jimmy Adams took 171 balls to score 49.
They were 174/4, leading by 225, when rain ended play for the day shortly after the scheduled resumption following the tea break.
It means Durham preserve their unbeaten record, with two wins and six draws from what has been a summer heavily influenced by the adverse weather thus far.
The opening hour proved a testing period for the visitors as Graham Onions and Paul Coughlin bowled exceptionally with the new ball.
At one stage, Coughlin had seven maidens from eight overs as the Hampshire batsmen struggled to get away quickly, but it was Onions who struck first, halfway through his one-hour testing spell.
The acting captain, Will Smith, fell for ten when he pushed forward and edged behind, but Tom Alsop joined Adams to dig in and frustrate the hosts on a wicket still offering a good degree of help to the bowlers.
Scott Borthwick broke their second wicket partnership. The leg-spinner had plenty of rough to bowl into outside the left-handers’ off stump and in his third over Alsop left one which turned sharply to bowl him.
Hampshire were 200 ahead with seven wickets standing and 42 overs left when Adams edged a drive off Coughlin for Ben Stokes to take the catch at slip.
Michael Carberry made a solid 55 to dash hopes of Durham forcing a victory before a shooter from Barry McCarthy bowled him shortly before the rain arrived.
After McCarthy’s heroics with the bat yesterday, both sides gained 12 points from the fixture; Durham’s next Championship match is away to Lancashire at Southport.
Close, Day Three: Durham (421; Jennings 129, Burnham 74, McCarthy 51, Stokes 51) trail Hampshire (472 & 9/0) by 60 runs
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Keaton Jennings scored a fifth century of the Specsavers County Championship season as Durham made 421/9d on the third day against Hampshire.
Jennings followed his unbeaten 221 in the second innings of Durham’s last match, against Yorkshire, by making 129.
He became the fourth Durham man to reach five Championship hundreds in a season before he was eventually removed for the first time in over 15 hours of red ball cricket.
With Jack Burnham scoring 74 and Ben Stokes a run-a-ball half-century, Durham reached 288/3 before a middle-order collapse left them one shy of a fourth batting point with one wicket remaining.
But with ten overs to score 51 for maximum batting points, Barry McCarthy and Graham Onions got there with ten balls to spare.
The Irishman hit two sixes in reaching his maiden 50 off 47 balls, while Onions contributed 23 to the unbroken stand of 72.
Stokes looked in excellent touch, clobbering three back-foot fours in four balls off Tino Best among his eight boundaries until ex-Durham man Will Smith bowled him.
With the overnight pair putting on 158, it was well into the afternoon before Durham lost a wicket when Burnham chipped to mid-on.
He showed great composure when faced with some short pitched bowling from Best & co, having been struck on the helmet in the day’s second over, and completed his third fifty of 2016.
Best was driven wide of mid-off by Jennings for the two runs which took the opener to his hundred off 201 balls.
He fell in the third over of the new ball, pushing forward and edging Gareth Berg to Adams at second slip.
Gareth Andrew replaced the injured McLaren and chipped in with three wickets as Durham looked to have fallen short of the maximum five batting points.
But McCarthy intervened, striking two big sixes – one over long-off, the other clearing long leg from a hook shot – to move to a maiden first-class half century.
DAY TWO: Hampshire continued to dominate their Specsavers County Championship match against Durham at Chester-le-Street, only for rain to wipe out most of the final session on the second day.
Division One’s bottom club, seeking their first win, declared on 472 for nine before Ryan McLaren bowled England aspirants Mark Stoneman and Scott Borthwick to leave Durham on 79 for two.
Stoneman offered no stroke and lost his off bail then Borthwick fell for five when he tried too late to withdraw his bat and edged into his stumps.
A change in conditions didn’t help Durham as the openers had 35 on the board after five overs. Light rain was starting to fall when Stoneman departed for 17 in the sixth over.
It passed quickly enough for play to continue, but the thickening cloud made batting more tricky, prompting Keaton Jennings to drop anchor.
He had raced to 20 off 16 balls, then added only three in facing a further 40 before bad light prompted tea to be taken an over early.
Gareth Berg had conceded one run in six overs, but on the resumption following heavy rain in the interval Jennings and Jack Burnham added 22 in six overs before the rain returned.
The three wickets Durham took as Hampshire progressed from their overnight 319 for six were handed to them.
Lewis McManus departed for five when he skied a pull off Graham Onions to be caught at mid-wicket by academy boy Alasdair Appleby, on as a substitute for Chris Rushworth.
Sean Ervine and Berg then put on 95 in 22 overs with Berg becoming the dominant partner as he made 56 off 74 balls before lofting Jennings to long-on.
Berg had gone to his 50 by following a six over extra cover off Ryan Pringle with a back-foot four to the same area off the next ball.
With the declaration looming after lunch, Gareth Andrew drove a straight six off Borthwick and Ervine tried to hurry to his century. On 72 he pulled Paul Coughlin for six and had sped to 93 when he attempted a scoop off the same bowler and was bowled.
At the start of Durham’s reply McLaren’s first two overs went for 16 and Tino Best conceded 19 in three before making way for Berg.
DAY ONE: Hampshire took full advantage of batting first in pleasant conditions at Chester-le-Street.
With the top five all passing 40, the visitors built on an opening stand of 160 to reach 319 for six at the close of the first day.
After Jimmy Adams led the way with 86 greater riches were promised when Michael Carberry and the recalled Adam Wheater were putting on 73 in 15 overs for the fourth wicket.
They took 28 off the first five overs with the new ball, only to depart in quick succession.
Having played himself in carefully in his new role at No 4, Carberry moved impressively through the gears to reach 48 before he shaped to pull Graham Onions from outside off and bottom-edged into his stumps.
A straight drive by Wheater gave him his seventh four and took him to 44 off 40 balls. But his attacking instincts left him in no position to deal with some skiddy extra pace as Barry McCarthy’s next ball pinned him lbw.
McCarthy, who will shortly be on Ireland duty again in the one-day series against Afghanistan, shared the second new ball in the absence of Chris Rushworth.
After bowling 16 of the first 40 overs as Durham desperately sought a breakthrough Rushworth was off the field for the rest of the day.
He conceded only 30 runs and beat both openers several times, although the greatest scares came in the first four balls.
Jimmy Adams, sent back when almost halfway down the pitch after Will Smith played to mid-wicket, would have been out had the throw throw hit the stumps. Then Smith went perilously close to playing on.
Adams drove nicely through the off side and had a couple of leg glances among the eight fours in his 76-ball half-century.
Smith needed 121 balls to reach his 50 and continued to leave the many balls wide of off stump before nibbling at one which left him in Keaton Jennings’ second over of gentle medium pace.
Smith was caught behind for 67 and Adams drove a head-high catch to Jennings at mid-wicket off McCarthy.
Tom Alsop played well for 40 before off-spinner Ryan Pringle hurried one through to have him lbw to bring in Wheater, who twice reverse-swept Pringle to the boundary.
Jennings, deputising at first slip for the injured Paul Collingwood for much of the day, clung on at the second attempt late in the day to remove Ryan McLaren, giving Paul Coughlin a wicket in his first championship appearance of the season.