Day 4
Durham needed only 37 minutes to wrap up a seven-wicket victory after another chastening week for Leicestershire in the LV= Insurance County Championship.Michael Jones, who fell three runs short of a century in the first innings, added a 58-ball fifty before Durham completed the win effectively inside eight sessions after rain washed out more than two thirds of the opening day.Nic Maddinson, the Australian international, finished unbeaten on 31 after on-driving Michael Finan for the winning boundary in the ninth over of the final morning, ensuring that England pace bowler Mathew Potts’s outstanding performance to take 13 wickets in the match was in a winning cause.Bowled out for 202 in the first innings after Durham had won the toss, Potts taking six for 52, Leicestershire conceded a first-innings lead of 94 before being dismissed for 198 in the second innings despite Louis Kimber’s 75.Potts went one better than in the first innings by finishing with seven for 49, recording his second haul of 10 wickets or more in a match with overall career-best figures of 13 for 101.Chasing a modest 105 to win when Potts took Leicestershire’s final wicket on Wednesday afternoon, Durham resumed on 54 for two, Jones signalling their intention to finish the job quickly by driving Michael Finan’s first ball of the day for four.Jones, who played some Second XI matches for Leicestershire in 2017, completed his second half-century of the match off 57 balls when he forced Chris Wright through the covers for his eighth boundary.Wright, underlining the story of the match in that it was a pitch on which no batter ever felt comfortable for long, hit back by bowling Jones next ball, yet it was no more than a fleeting moment of encouragement for the home side.New batter David Bedingham was close to being out in the next over when he hit Finan in tha air close to the fielder at midwicket but settled to pick up two more boundaries in the over with classic cover drives.Finan, a left-arm seamer in only his second first-class match at the age of 26, had bowled an impressive spell to take two quick wickets on Wednesday evening. He was unable to stifle Durham’s progress this time but he had made a good impression in the match.Sol Budinger, another making his first-class debut after his move from Nottinghamshire, caught the eye with a first-innings half-century and Tom Scriven, a right-arm seamer picked up by Leicestershire from Hampshire last winter, also showed some promise on his first-class bow.Yet these were minor crumbs of comfort for the Foxes, who have two more chances – against Middlesex at home next week and away to Derbyshire in the last week of the season – to avoid another zero in the wins column.
Day 3
Matthew Potts bowled Leicestershire to the brink of an eighth defeat of the season with figures of seven for 49, leaving Durham to chase a modest target of 105 to claim only their second win their LV= Insurance County Championship season.
Combined with his six for 52 in the first innings, it gave the 23-year-old Sunderland-born bowler, who made a strong impression in five Test appearances earlier in the summer, career-best match figures of 13 for 101.Louis Kimber’s 75 kept Leicestershire just about in the game as they scored 202 in their second innings on a pitch that was still making batting difficult at times. Durham were two down for 51 at the close but the odds are still heavily in their favour, with just 54 more needed on the final day.Potts took his wickets in three spells, three in 10 overs at the top of the innings, three more wickets in eight overs either side of tea, before coming back at nine down to add one more.Durham had established a 94-run first-innings lead by adding 57 to their overnight score in the hour and 20 minutes or so it took for Leicestershire to take their last five wickets.Nic Maddinson top-scored with 56 – his first half-century for Durham – but their total of 296 was fewer than they had been looking for at 239 for five overnight.Tom Scriven recorded his maiden first-class wicket for Leicestershire when he dismissed Ben Raine, caught behind via an inside edge on to pad, in the first over of the day, and Durham collapsed as soon as the second new ball was taken 10 overs into the day.Michael Finan, the whippy left-arm quick who made his debut only last week, delivered an excellent spell. He trapped Tom Mackintosh leg before with an inswinging yorker and squared up Maddinson, who edged to second slip.Potts was also caught at second slip, attempting to leave a ball from Ed Barnes that climbed on him, before Chris Wright cleaned up Ollie Gibson.Leicestershire’s brittle batting was exposed again as they then sank to 54 for four in their second innings.Debutant Sol Budinger, who impressed with his 64 in the first innings, perished without scoring, Potts finding a way past his defensive bat to clip the top of middle and off.Hassan Azad was caught at short leg fending off his ribs from Potts before Rishi Patel slashed at one from Raine and was snared brilliantly by Scott Borthwick, diving to his left at second slip.Colin Ackermann was then beaten for pace as Potts claimed his ninth wicket of the match.Kimber at least offered some defiance, his 75 spanning almost three hours and at least ensuring that Durham would have work to do in the fourth innings.At the other end, the batters were less enduring. Harry Swindells, dropped by Gibson on one off his own bowling, became Potts’s 10th victim when a thin edge saw him caught behind for 16, but he and Kimber added 64.Kimber went to his half-century with the first ball after tea, pulled through midwicket off Potts for a 10th boundary, but Durham’s England man inflicted more damage with wickets in his next two overs as Scriven and then Barnes departed, both finding Potts too good.Four boundaries from Kimber within a couple of overs, taking his tally to 14, stretched Leicestershire’s lead a little more, but his downfall came in the form of a ball angled into his pads by Gibson and a successful appeal for leg before.That was followed by one of the more bizarre dismissals as Wright was bowled by a ball he played into the ground at his feet with the bottom of his bat, but which then bounced up almost vertically and freakishly landed on the top of his stumps, Wright losing sight of it and therefore powerless to intervene.Potts then returned to make Parkinson his seventh victim in the innings and 13th in the match, caught at first slip, leaving Durham to face 15 overs before the close.Michael Finan, whose left-arm seam had been impressive in the first innings, produced two fine balls to bowl Sean Dickson and pin Borthwick leg before in his first three overs, but Durham navigated the remaining time safely.
Day 2
Michael Jones missed out on a second century of the season against the Foxes but Durham moved into a slender lead over the home side on day two of their LV= Insurance County Championship match, albeit with five wickets lost.The Scotland top-order batter, who made 108 against Leicestershire at Chester-le-Street in April, fell for 97 , but it was thanks largely to him that Durham closed on 239 for five with a 37-run advantage over the side at the bottom of Division Two.Left-arm spinner Callum Parkinson, the Leicestershire skipper, took three for 43 with a feeling he might have bowled himself more on a pitch giving him some help. Veteran seamer Chris Wright picked up two well deserved late wickets.Earlier, England pace bowler Matthew Potts had taken six for 52 as Leicestershire were dismissed for 202, debutant Sol Budinger failing to add to his 63 not out overnight but finishing as his new side’s top scorer.Having resumed on 97 for two, Leicestershire were all out by lunch – albeit one delayed by the fall of the ninth wicket. Following the departure of Budinger leg before in the third over of the morning, they collapsed to 130 for eight, losing six wickets for 31.Potts wrecked the middle order with three wickets in four overs. Swinging deliveries had Louis Kimber and Harry Swindells caught behind, the latter off an inside edge, before his pace left Ed Barnes surveying his shattered stumps.Colin Ackermann was leg before playing across one from Paul Coughlin, who picked up a third wicket in the innings when Tom Scriven was caught at backward point off a careless shot.Landing the final, decisive blows proved more difficult for the Durham bowlers, the last two wickets adding 72 more runs, although Wright was dropped at second slip on 15 before he fell for 29. Parkinson eked out 31 before a top edge to cover brought his downfall, Potts dismissing both for his second six-for against Leicestershire this season.The second session went no better for the home side as Durham put on exactly 100 for one wicket, although Leicestershire’s bowlers were a little unlucky. Wright and the left-armer Michael Finan posed problems for the Durham openers, both of whom were fortunate at times. When the ball did find the edge, it went to ground. Jones reached fifty from 71 balls with eight fours.In the event, it was after Parkinson brought himself on after 26 overs that they made a breakthrough, the skipper drawing Sean Dickson down the pitch to drive a ball that started wide and turned wider. Rishi Patel held a good catch at backward point.As Parkinson celebrated, spectators may have been forgiven for wondering why he had delayed his introduction for so long, especially given that the wicket clearly suited him. With the left-handed Scott Borthwick next in, there seemed to be an opportunity.Nonetheless, after bowling a couple of overs before tea, he went back to seam at the start of the third session, although he should have seen a reward when Jones, on 80, smarting from a blow on the thigh the previous delivery, edged Barnes to first slip only for Kimber to spill a regulation chance. Wright again looked sharp.It was 20 overs into the final session before Parkinson bowled again, and again he made an immediate impact as Jones, who had moved to within three runs of a third ton of the season with his 16th four in the previous over, edged to Ackermann at slip.There was clearly something there for Parkinson, who struck another blow a couple of overs later, surprising Borthwick with a quicker ball that bowled him through his legs.With the floodlights on but the light still good, the persevering Wright, still finding plenty of movement, picked up two wickets, having both David Bedingham and Coughlinwas caught behind. Nic Maddinson is unbeaten on 37.
Day 1
For the second game running Durham were disrupted by the weather on day one of their LV= Insurance County Championship match at the Uptonsteel County Ground against Leicestershire. Only 22 overs were possible before rain forced the players off the field for an early lunch just after mid-day, with Leicestershire 97 for two, debutant Sol Budinger on 63 not out – despite having to change his bat after Ben Raine knocked a chunk out of it with the first ball of the day.Once the rain had subsided, the ground staff made every effort to make the playing surface fit for a resumption, but with no wind to speak of to hasten the drying process parts of the outfield remained stubbornly soggy.Those 22 overs were enough time, though, for the former Nottinghamshire batter Budinger to make a favourable impression on his Leicestershire debut, with 10 fours and a six already in his account.Budinger, 23, never played a first-class match during his two years as a senior player at Trent Bridge but moved to Grace Road after scoring 645 red-ball runs for Nottinghamshire’s Second XI this season.Of those, 321 came in two matches against Leicestershire Second XI, including his highest score of 151.He has a reputation as an aggressive top-order player in white-ball formats and it is clear that he wants to play red-ball cricket with the same mindset. Budinger reached 50 off just 57 balls with nine fours, three of them in a single over off the rookie seamer Oliver Gibson.Flexing his muscles, he then pulled Paul Coughlin for a huge six over the Milligan Road side of the ground. Although he had some early luck with balls that were a whisker from finding the edge, he generally hit the ball cleanly.Coughlin had removed Budinger’s opening partner, Hassan Azad, with a big inswinger that had him leg before. Their partnership of 74 was the second highest for the first wicket this season for the side currently bottom of Division Two.England bowler Matthew Potts – back playing after almost four weeks with no cricket – dismissed Rishi Patel via a superb catch by Paul Coughlin at second slip in the last over before the rain came.