Durham’s LV= County Championship fixture against Middlesex ended in a draw despite the visitors best efforts secure the win in less than three days playing time.
A ruthless approach from the Durham attack saw Middlesex dismissed for 179, having established a lead of 130 on the final day at Lord’s, but the bad weather prevailed interrupting play after 2.4 overs, 16 overs remaining to score the further 122 runs, once the weather cleared.
Graham Onions’ excellent form continued into the final day with the fast bowler securing his first ten wicket haul in a match for Durham. He struck early on when Robson edged him to Michael Di Venuto in the slips off his fourth delivery.
Toby Roland-Jones top edged a Ben Stokes delivery high up for up for Dale Benkenstein to hold on to at gully leaving Middlesex 36-3.
The all-rounder picked up a second wicket in his next over when Joe Denly was caught behind for 14, with Middlesex still trailing Durham’s first innings total by seven runs.
Dawid Malan helped guide Middlesex past fifty but didn’t hang around to help extend the lead, becoming Mitchell Claydon’s first victim of the innings, after he nicked the ball to Mustard behind the stumps.
Middlesex were 75-6 once Neil Dexter (1) fell to Callum Thorp, thanks to a second catch from the keeper.
By lunch the hosts has a lead of 41 but fell further under the strain after Onions trapped Rogers (36) lbw with the second delivery after lunch reducing the hosts to 91-7. Middlesex’s misfortune continued when Berg returned to the pavilion two deliveries later after edging the ball to Di Venuto in the slips.
Tim Murtagh and John Simpson helped the cause carefully constructing a ninth wicket stand of 82 before the former was caught behind off Mitchell Claydon, five runs short of his half century.
Scott Borthwick brought the Middlesex innings to an end with their score at 179 when he bowled Simpson on 47, which left Durham 45 overs to score the 130 runs required to claim the win.
The Durham openers faced 2.4 overs before bad light brought play to a halt. By the time the weather cleared Durham had 16.2 overs to score 122 runs, a challenge the Durham batsmen attacked but sadly still fell short – Durham ended their second innings 82-6 and the match was drawn.
For the action has it happened view our Live Match Chat feed www.durhamccc.co.uk/live-match-chat
For highlights of each day’s play visit www.durhamccc.co.uk/durhamtv/highlights
If stats are your thing, take a look at the match scorecard here http://www.durhamccc.co.uk/scorecard/447