Attritional day at The Riverside

posted by John Winn

There was no play in four of yesterday's scheduled six championship matches while at Worcester only 38.1 overs were bowled but which was was enough to see the home team bowled out by Lancs with four wickets each for Anderson and Onions, a combination which on several occasions in the past shared the new ball for England. When Barnard was caught Vilas bowled Anderson the last ground standing was The Riverside where we basked in glorious sunshine until well after tea.

The absurd 'uncontested toss' rule having been gleefully enforced by Northants' new skipper Adam Rossington, Durham's ineptitude against the new ball on the first morning reached new depths when to the third, and his first, ball of the day Jones shouldered arms to Sanderson, one of the most effective seamers on the circuit and was bowled, 1 for 1. Shortly afterwards, Bancroft, who should no longer be dining out on his runs in white ball cricket, mimicked Jones and suffered the same fate, 5 for 2. Here we go again became again and again when Lees became Sanderson's third victim and Harte fell to on loan Matt Coles for six, brilliantly caught at slip by Vasconcelos. 18 for 4.

A recovery of sorts having been mounted by Burnham who fell to a worm burner from Buck, Trevaskis and Eckersley we lunched on 61 for 5 but when the last of these was caught behind off Coles and Trevaskis showed the same irresponsibility as he had against Derbyshire last week and holed out next ball to midwicket it was 81 for 7 and those hoping Durham might add to their five batting points gained so far this season were casting their eyes towards Hove on June 24th. Not for the first time however the lower order, perhaps benefiting from a drying wicket and outfield lifted our spirits and by the close Raine and Carse had added an unbeaten 128 for the eighth wicket, setting a new record for this wicket against Northants, beating the mark set by Collingwood and Killeen twenty years ago. In so doing Raine passed his highest score, 72 for Leicestershire against Lancs in 2013 and at stumps Carse was not far short of his pb of 61 not out  which came against Sussex two seasons ago.

Despite Rossington seeming to revel in his new found power to change the bowling it is very much to Northants' credit that 96 overs were bowled by six o'clock and by the close of play Durham had managed to get their run rate above two, below which it had languished for most of the day. On their respective websites both sides seemed content with the day's proceedings. Durham 'ended the day on a high note' while Northants felt they had the 'upper hand'. A good round for both boys then as WE Barrington Dalby was known to say and given that play has started on time this morning and with  the forecast for the north east a little less dire than it was earlier more play than was previously predicted might be possible today.