In Part Two of our series, we take a look at four more Magic Moments from Test matches here at Durham.
Part one of the series can be viewed here.
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During the Ashes tour down under in 2006, Paul Collingwood proved his worth to England’s Test side and the summer of 2007 offered an opportunity to cement a place in their middle order. He grabbed it with both hands on home turf.
Collingwood so often flourished when England needed him most and at 165/6 against the West Indies, he once again came to the rescue and registered three figures at Chester-le-Street – the first Durham man to register three figures in a Test match here.
The first fifty were relatively gritty after Fidel Edwards removed Andrew Strauss but his patience paid dividends as a tiring bowling outfit were punished during the afternoon.
Upon reaching a hundred the crowd afforded him a standing ovation and Collingwood himself punched the air with delight: “It was a dream come true, a very special day.”
The confrontation started in the Caribbean months earlier and continued at Lord’s with a nasty blow to James Anderson’s helmet. The ‘Burnley Lara’ still doesn’t understand why his presence fires up Fidel Edwards, but it happened again at Chester-le-Street.
Anderson stood up to the barrage, taking numerous blows to the body for his troubles, before Edwards’ top nearly blew after Denesh Ramdin dropped a leg side chance; England’s man responded by punching a four through the off side.
Edwards finally got his man and celebrated somewhat elaborately with a wrestling-style ‘DX chop’ across his hips. When it was Anderson’s turn as they neared defeat, the West Indian conveniently succumbed to Tim Bresnan with the Lancastrian waiting in the wings.
Three batsmen were vying for two positions ahead of the 2005 Ashes series; experienced man Graham Thorpe alongside two young upstarts in Ian Bell and an uncapped Kevin Pietersen.
Bell was largely fancied at number four and nailed down his spot with a magnificent maiden Test century to bat Bangladesh well out of the game, and bat himself firmly into an Ashes spot.
Coming to the crease at 105/2, Bell offered few chances in chalking up a century from 132 balls and went on to rack up 162 not out. Such was the Warwickshire man’s form during the two-Test series, his 227 runs came without an average as he was not dismissed by the Tigers’ bowlers.
It also set Bell well on his way to becoming the leading Test run-scorer at the Riverside, an aggregate of 292 runs, which could be threatened by Alastair Cook’s 253-run haul at the end of this month.
Chasing 299 runs for a shot at levelling the Ashes series ahead of the fifth and final Test (despite England had already retained the urn), Australia must have fancied their chances at 174/3. Enter Stuart Broad.
The pace bowler has a knack of producing unstoppable spells and saved this one for a big occasion, with his six wickets taking him to 11 in the match and leaving the Aussies 74 short.
Michael Clarke’s dismissal was one of the series’ best balls by Broad before Steve Smith followed with a plucky two from 19 balls.
Tim Bresnan contributed to the downfall with a tight spell but Broad was simply destructive, taking four more wickets and that of last man Nathan Lyon, sparking immense celebrations around the ground.