Durham Match Thread 2024

[Durhamfootman]

190-7

bad light stops play

[Durhamfootman]

Uni declare overnight, so I'm guessing we've come to an arrangement, where we bat quickly and then try to bowl the Uni out. Good to see that we are still treating this as a match to win, rather than going through the motions to give everyone a go

Jones dismissed early for 0, replaced by Bas at 3 who got yorked straight away. I noticed that Ollie Gibson only bowled 2 overs yesterday and I watched those 2 overs. He was walking uncomfortably back to his mark, although it didn't seem to overly affect his run in. Maybe there was something tightening up on him and we didn't want to risk anything

Raine in at 4

what's the target do we think..... 300 and 2 sessions to try and bowl them out?

[Durhamfootman]

Uni are coached by Melvyn Betts, seemingly (who surprisingly is still only 49).

he'll be very happy with his team, I'm sure

[Durhamfootman]

Sam Martin Jenkins comes on and gets McKinney straight away. He might be a nephew of RMJ but not certain of that

Coggers at 5

[Durhamfootman]

50 for Raine

92-4 lead by 252

[Durhamfootman]

lead is 276 at lunch

will we declare or have a thrash?

[Durhamfootman]

declared. target is 277

Pottsy straight in 7-1

[Durhamfootman]

I'm back from the school run and the students are 98-5 at tea. 5-2-4-3 for George D.

For that last wicket, he kept changing sides every couple of balls and ended up turning one through the gate. Looked like intelligent cricket to me.

[Durhamfootman]

gone dark now and the umpires have told us we can only bowl spin. This happened mid over, so had the bizarre sight of Coggers steaming in for 4 balls of the over and then bowling a couple of offies off 2 paces

Ackers gets a bowl and George has a 4th

[Durhamfootman]

bad light ends the game early

Having bowled so well, George went for a few later on. I'm guessing that this might have been his chance for a maiden first class 5fer, so maybe, with time running out, he was trying a bit too hard. He ended up with 4-34, but he was on 4-15 at one point. Still, he looked the part and took 7 of the 13 wickets to fall in the match

[Durhamfootman]

Seemingly, Bedders was having a net today, so he's back

[Durhamfootman]

Hampshire first up for the season

Of course, I've recently been reminded of what exactly that means.......

Mo Abbas, who bowled us out twice in about 5 overs when he first played for Leics

and duh, duh, durrrrr...... Keith bloody 'first i'll take 5 fer for hardly any runs, then I'll hit you for 150 runs, and I'll finish off with another 5 fer' Barker

eek!

I'd forgotten about both of them

[Durhamfootman]

then again, I've had a look at our last meetings in 2016. We beat Warks away with KB scoring 10 and 6 and taking no wickets in either innings and then we drew at home, Barker 3fer, 43 runs and then 1fer

so maybe I'm being unduly pessimistic

and he's 37 now, so *modded* him!

[Durhamfootman]

Abbas will still be a handful, I reckon

[captaincolly]

Abbas will still be a handful, I reckon

Could be carnage. Very difficult start but I guess that's division one. I may be pessimistic too but am already thinking how important the games against Worcestershire and Kent could be.