Day 2: Durham 136 & 108/4 beat Worcestershire 162 and 81 by six wickets
Durham beat Worcestershire by six wickets inside two days in a bowler-dominated Rothesay County Championship thriller at Visit Worcestershire New Road.
Durham gained 19 points from a first County Championship victory of the season, seeing an initial rise to fifth in the table with 45 points on the board as Ben Raine and Codi Yusuf took four wickets apiece on day two..
After 16 wickets fell on the first day, 14 fell in the first two sessions of the second on a pitch which the seamers would like to carry round in their kit bag.
Durham trailed by 26 on first innings after they were bowled out for 136 (Ben Allison three for 26, Tom Taylor three for 36) but George Drissell’s resolute 31 (63 balls) proved priceless as Worcestershire were skittled for 81 in the afternoon session.
A Ben Raine blitz left the home side three for three and they never recovered, Raine ending with four for 20 and Codi Yusuf four for 26. Durham faced a victory target of 107, no formality on such a bowler friendly pitch, but reached 108 for four, thanks principally to Ben McKinney’s 34 from 58 balls.
After resuming on the second morning on 55 for four, Durham hit immediate further turbulence with two wickets in the fourth over, from Taylor. Jack Blatherwick edged to wicketkeeper Gareth Roderick and Will Rhodes did the same to end 111 minutes of defiance for 17.
Drissell and Graham Clark dug in to add 47 in 20 overs before Allison took three wickets in 13 balls. Clark played on, Raine edged to second slip and Drissell leading-edged to point. Number 11 Jake Ball smote 13, a very handy cameo in the context of the match, before Yusuf edged Jacob Duffy behind.
Worcestershire’s second innings lurched straight into crisis as Raine struck three times in his first two overs. His third ball clipped Roderick’s off-stump, his ninth went to second slip via Jake Libby’s edge and his 11th pinned Rob Jones lbw. Six innings in this match brought Roderick, Libby and Jones 18 runs.
Henry Nicholls and Adam Hose chiselled out 40 but the most authoritative shot of the day, Hose’s cut four off Ball, was immediately followed by his dismissal when he tickled the next ball behind.
Taylor followed, dubiously adjudged lbw to Yusuf. When Kiwi debutant Henry Nicholls, averaging 116 in his last four first class games, fell lbw to Ball having gritted out 25 from 72 minutes, Worcestershire were 50 for six.
Yusuf hit Brett D’Oliviera’s middle stump and, after Raine trapped Matthew Waite lbw, the South African finished off the innings with wickets in successive balls as Allison played on and Duffy skied a slog.
Chasing 108 in two days and a session, Durham lost Alex Lees, bowled by Duffy, in the third over but McKinney and Will Rhodes added 35, almost a third of the target, before Rhodes edged an unplayable ball from Taylor.
Colin Ackermann fell lbw to Waite but, with such a small target, Worcestershire’s bowlers needed dot balls as well as wicket-taking balls and they couldn’t find enough. McKinney drove Waite to mid-off but Robinson and Clark saw their side home with an assertive unbroken stand of 36 in 41 balls. It was a match for batters to forget but the biggest losers were the Worcestershire fans, denied any cricket to watch on Sunday with the weather due to be glorious.
Day 1
Jake Ball took five wickets on his Durham debut to help his new team take the early honours in their Rothesay County Championship match at Visit Worcestershire New Road, but Brett D’Oliveira’s bowlers struck back on a day when 14 wickets fell in the Division One clash.
Ball took five for 47 as Worcestershire were dismissed for 162, thereby failing to collect a batting bonus point for the fourth successive match this season.
However, having seen their bowlers make the most of winning the toss on a helpful pitch, Durham’s batsmen encountered their own problems in the evening session and the day ended with the visitors on 55 for four and the match evenly poised.
The morning began poorly for Worcestershire, who slumped to 22 for three inside the first hour. Ball marked the beginning of his two-week loan spell by taking all the wickets in 12 deliveries, each of his victims being caught behind by Ollie Robinson.
Gareth Roderick perished for four when cutting, Jake Libby feathered an attempted forward defensive stroke on nine and Rob Jones nicked a drive when on only three.
Matters could have been even worse for Worcestershire had Henry Nicholls’ edge off Ball not evaded George Drissell’s grasp at third slip when the New Zealander had made seven.
As it was, Nicholls and Adam Hose took their side to 75 for three at lunch, only for Hose to be lbw on the front foot to Ben Raine for 23 eleven balls after the resumption.
Worcestershire’s woes continued when another Durham debutant, Codi Yusuf, who will play for Durham until early July, brought one back off the seam to have Henry Nicholls lbw for a 155-ball 42.
Mathew Waite then meekly steered a wide delivery from the same bowler to the Lancashire loanee, Jack Blatherwick, at backward point and departed for eight.
That left the home side on 116 for six just after the midpoint of the day’s play and D’Oliveira followed his colleagues to the pavilion half an hour later when he was leg before wicket to Ben Raine for 28.
Hopes of a recovery were further dented on the point of tea when Drissell had Tom Taylor lbw for nought with a sharply turning off-break.
Ball was switched to the Diglis End immediately after tea and had Ethan Brookes caught at long leg by Blatherwick for 23 before he completed his fine return when Jake Duffy nicked him to Drissell at slip.
Yusuf finished with two for 36 from 12 overs but the visitors were also indebted to Raine, who held the attack together with figures of two for 16 from 17 overs.
Durham’s reply began poorly when Alex Lees chopped on to Jacob Duffy for nought in the third over of the innings and having stroked four lovely boundaries, Ben McKinney was well caught low down at first slip by Hose off Taylor for 24.
The visitors’ problems increased when Colin Ackermann was bowled by Matthew Waite’s second delivery of the innings for five and Worcestershire’s fightback was completed when Ollie Robinson was leg before wicket to Waite for a 17-ball nought.
Will Rhodes was 17 not out at the close and nightwatchman Blatherwick was unbeaten on two.