Baggy greens at The Riverside

Posted by John winn
A year and a week from today Chester le Street will host its first Ashes test and today saw a pale imitation when a largely second eleven Durham team took on Australia A. Train and bus meshed well together and I arrived at the ground ten minutes before play was due to start. Durham had won the toss and elected to bat and captain Stoneman and Singh made decent progress until the latter was lbw to McDermott, son of Craig. Enter Muchall who averages less than ten in first class cricket at the Riverside this season and things went little better for him today. His dismissal at 61 heralded a characteristic Durham collapse to 75 for 5. To the credit of the late middle order and tail this was eventually raised to 197 all out by four o.clock when tea was taken. Good knocks from Myburgh, Richardson and Coughlin largely accounted for the last 100 runs. As well as McDermott who took four wickets Holland also impressed with his spin.

During the afternoon about half an hour was lost to rain and there was further delay when bad light and more rain interrupted the Australian reply. In my last posting I made reference to how Durham's bowlers had rescued their batters in the weekend's game against Middlesex, remarkably their second string did the same thing again today. After Brathwaite had skipper Cowan lbw, Davis and Klinger added 68 for the second week but by the close Australia A had been reduced to 111 for 6 with Mark Wood taking four wickets.Tthe twenty two year old is from Ashington, not the first Durham seamer to come from that part of Northumberland!

Despite free admission the crowd was fairly sparse and I wonder why such games do not attract more spectators. Several of the Australian team have test caps and by this time next year that number may have increased. Durham's win over Middlesex has slightly opened the door marked survival and with all  the other three threatened teams still to be played to some extent their future is in their own hands. The run in to the end of the season starts with the visit of fellow strugglers Surrey next Tuesday. Bigger turn out no doubt.

Cricket aside the highlight of the day for me was the appearance of two longstanding friends from Essex who had diverted on their journey home from North Wales to spend a couple of days in the north east. Great to see them again and safe journey home on Friday.