Durham Match Thread 2020

[Durhamfootman]

Div 1 table

190 Yorkshire (12)
186 Durham (12)
178 Nottinghamshire (12)
169 Sussex (11)
148 Somerset (12)
137 Hampshire (10)
87 Warwickshire (11)
79 Worcestershire (10)
79 Lancashire (12)

Durham applying some pressure on leaders Yorkshire ahead of their respective T20 quarter finals

[Durhamfootman]

Durham made it through to finals day with a nervy quarter final win over Glamorgan. Choosing to bowl first, Durham quickly had the visitors on the back foot, but the Glamorgan middle order rallied and despite a seasons best 5-34 from Mitch Claydon, Glamorgan were able to post a very competitive looking 171-8. Recovering from the early loss of Mustard, Diva and Stokes reached 90 by the end of the 8th over when Stokes became Wagg's second victim. Diva forged ahead scoring quickly to reduce the required rate to under 6 an over, but his dismissal saw Durham suddenly start scratching around seemingly unable to get the ball away. The asking rate started to climb and it was only some lusty blows from Blackwell in the last 2 overs that saw Durham over the line

Glamorgan 171-8
Claydon 5-34
Blackwell 1-25

Durham 172-5
DiVenuto 63
Benkenstein 42

Durham win by 5 wickets

[Durhamfootman]

Durham will play Surrey in the first semi final. Yorkshire will face Leicestershire in the second

[Durhamfootman]

Hampshire were the visitors for the next CC match. Hampshire won the toss and elected to bat reaching 349 in the first innings with Pothas top scoring with 85. As conditions became more bowler friendly, the Durham batsmen largely struggled to get themselves in, so Durham were particularly indebted to Will Smith for an obdurate 206 not out, which blunted the Hampshire bowlers and took Durham to 425 and a healthy lead. With so much time already taken out of the game, the weather conspired to take out some more and any hopes Durham had of forcing a result rested on bowling out Hampshire out quickly. It looked good for a while, as Harmison rolled back the years for his seasons best 7-69, but Pothas once more proved to be the rock that the Durham bowling wave crashed against. Eventually Pothas was left stranded on 110 not out and Hampshire had 262 a lead of 186 and one session remaining. The umpires called time with Durham 73-3

Hampshire 349
Blackwell 4-62
Davies 2-61

Durham 425
Smith 206*
Stokes 75

Hampshire 262
Harmison 7-69
Davies 2-38

Durham 73-3

Match drawn

[Durhamfootman]

Durham go top, with Yorkshire not playing

[Durhamfootman]

YB40 action continues against Leicester. Durham took the decision to rest several key white ball players for this fixture which came just one day after the draw with Hampshire. James Franklin's 102 formed the backbone of Leicestershire's total of 238-8, with Durham contriving to lose wickets regularly, eventually subsiding in the 35th over to 154 all out

Leicestershire 238-8
Thorp 3-56
Breese 1-28

Durham 154 ao
Coetzer 84
Breese 25

Leicesteshire win by 84 runs

[Durhamfootman]

The weather is still dreadful, so Durham have been busy again

Wantage Rd for the latest installment of the YB40 and Durham, choosing to bowl first, restricted Northants to 209-9 with some decent bowling. Only Borthwick took a bit of tap. Then followed one of the more abject Durham batting displays as Durham lost 4 wickets for no runs in the first 2 overs. Stoneman, Richardson, Raine and Coetzer finding Vaas and Lucas unplayable. It took 12 overs for Durham to find the first of their 4 boundaries. It's a good rule of cricket that teams should at least try to bat out the overs and this Durham did, the innings ending with Durham on 76-9

Northamptonshire 209-9
Thorp 2-31
Rushworth 2-33

Durham 76-9
Muchall 25

Northants win by 133 runs

[Durhamfootman]

The county championship saw a change in fortunes for Durham as they secured a comfortable win over Notts at Trent Bridge. Asked to bowl on a gloriously sunny day, the Durham seamers, led by the rejuvenated Steve Harmison, stuck to their task and restricted Notts to 340, bowling them out in the final over of day 1. Samit Patel was the main resistance with 127, supported by 50's for Voges and (inevitably) Read; Harmison taking his second consecutive 5fer. After a fine start, Durham began to flounder a little as the clouds rolled over Trent Bridge. Collingwood was at his obdurate best grinding out his fifty at a strike rate of less than 20, but His occupation of the crease allowed Blackwell the time to score a counter-attacking century, to get Durham level. Mustard marshalled the tail well for his fifty, Harmison had a bit of fun at the end hitting 5 boundaries in his 30 and Durham had a 100 run lead. Harmison then ripped out the Notts top order; Patel again led the middle order revival, but their second innings total of 242 never looked enough and Durham secured the victory with an hour to spare.

Nottinghamshire 340
Harmison 5-88
Davies 2-55

Durham 444
Blackwell 114
Stokes 74

Nottinghamshire 242
Harmison 4-54
Onions 2-33

Durham 139-2
DiVenuto 70*

Durham win by 8 wickets

[Durhamfootman]

The 5 wicket defeat of Yorkshire by Sussex in their game in hand means that Durham stay top

Div 1 table 26th August

218 Durham (14)
216 Yorkshire (14)
194 Sussex (13)
189 Nottinghamshire (14)
167 Hampshire (12)
167 Somerset (13)
121 Worcestershire (12)
91 Warwickshire (13)
85 Lancashire (13)

[Durhamfootman]

Finals day coming up

[Durhamfootman]

First semi final and Durham were put into bat by Surrey. After a bright start, the dismissal of Mustard for 43 saw the innings flounder as the middle order had difficulty getting the ball off the square and Durham had to settle for 150-8. It never felt like enough, but the bowlers started well and once Borthwick took 2 in 2 to leave Surrey on 83-5 it felt as though it might be on. Sadly for Durham a 7th wicket partnership of 50 between Roy and Schofield left Surrey needing only 7 off the final over, which they got with 2 balls to spare. An altogether typically disappointing finals day performance by Durham

Durham 150-8
Miller 44
Mustard 43

Surrey 151-7
Bothwick 3-28
Breese 2-24

Surrey won by 3 wickets

[Durhamfootman]

Durham's final YB40 match of a terrible campaign was against losing T20 finalists, Surrey. Durham chose to bat in the hope that it would change their dreadful batting performances, but this time it took 3.1 overs for the first 4 wickets to fall, rather than the 2 overs of the previous match. The same 4 wickets of Stoneman, Richardson, Raine and Coetzer. Collingwood and Borthwick recovered the innings for long enough to record a club record 6th wicket partnership of 101, but both fell immediately after passing 50. With no other player passing 16, Durham finished their innings on 158-9, a total that Surrey chased down in 22.1 overs

Durham 158-9
Collingwood 52
Borthwick 51

Surrey 162-3
Thorp 2-46
Breese 1-23

Surrey win by 7 wickets

[Durhamfootman]

Thank goodness that's over for another year

[Durhamfootman]

Durham finished the season in 6th place with a total of 8 points ahead of bottom placed Scotland

Next up is Durham's penultimate championship match at Hove against fellow title chasing rivals Sussex

[Durhamfootman]

Having dropped the out of form Raine to include an extra spinner for this vital match, Durham won the toss on a cloudy day and chose to bowl. Having reduced Sussex to 209-6 it was disappointing that they then went on to concede three 50 run partnerships for the last 4 wickets, with Sussex reaching 390. Durham batted well though and the Sussex bowlers were given little reward. When DiVenuto reached 88 not out, he had amassed a career best seasons tally of 1658 runs. His dismissal for 112 sparked a collapse that saw the visitors reduced from 225-3 to 244-7, but Mustard took charge of the situation and his half century saw Durham to the close of day 2 on 296-8. The rain came on day 3. only 2 overs were possible in the morning session, but that was enough for Durham to be bowled out for 297, a deficit of 93, before the rains returned. Only 13 overs were possible in the afternoon session, before the rain returned yet again but Davies used the time to pick up the wickets of Joyce and Goodwin. 15 were scheduled for the evening session but after 8 of those overs were played before the umpires took the players off for bad light. The rain stayed away on day 4, Sussex declaring their innings on 191-6 half an hour after lunch, a lead of 284. Durham declined the chase and the match ended in a draw with Durham 177-4

Sussex 390
Blackwell 3-69
Borthwick 2-56

Durham 297
DiVenuto 112
Stokes 52
Mustard 51

Sussex 191-6
Davies 3-53

Durham 177-4
Collingwood 54
DiVenuto 45

match drawn