Durham v Leicestershire at Riverside.

 Posted by Tony Hutton

After a drawn game with Glamorgan at Cardiff last week, mainly due to weather interruptions, Durham faced Leicestershire in their first home game of the new season. The forecast looked good for the four days and a reasonable crowd attended on the first morning, with the pleasure of renewing friendships from last season and in some cases even longer ago.

The players line up before the start

A few new faces in the two sides as they lined up for a minute's respectful silence before the start. Perhaps the most notable being Keegan Peterson, recently in action for South Africa in a Test Match with Bangladesh, who was fresh off the plane only yesterday. He replaced Alex Lees suffering with a back injury after his big century last week. Another newcomer for Durham was promising all rounder Oliver Gibson making his first class debut, as was Nick Welsh for Leicester, a Zimbabwean born batsman who is yet another product of Loughborough University. A strange decision by Leicester was to leave slow left armer Callum Parkinson out of the side, which they may have regretted later in the game.

The game gets underway.

Leicestershire won the toss and asked the home side to bat first. This decision initially seemed to have paid off, when Jones, Petersen and Borthwick were all back in the pavilion with the score 34-3. Soon afterwards however Leicestershire's most experienced bowler, Chris Wright, had to leave the field with an injury problem. The fourth wicket pair of David Bedingham and Sean Dickson set about the depleted attack and were still together at tea, with Bedingham already past the century mark and Dickson poised on 99 not out.

Dickson and Bedingham leave the field at tea time.

Sun shining on Lumley Castle.

Dickson duly went to his first century for Durham with the first ball after the interval. Not quite a new experience for him as he once scored over three hundred for Kent. The partnership had put on 231 before the hard working Ed Barnes, formerly with Yorkshire, took his second wicket by having Dickson lbw for 120. Bedingham was still there at close of play on 184 not out, with the total a healthy 356-6.

Two centurions on the board.

After the run feast, the second day was one of hard graft. Unfortunately Bedingham fell just short of his double century when he was caught and bowled by fellow South African Beuran Hendricks for191. This seemed to slow things down somewhat and Durham progressed at a leisurely pace which seemed to do little to advance the game. Raine and Potts put together a partnership of 61, but one felt they could have gone a bit quicker with so many runs already on the board.

12th man duties for Callum Parkinson, who could have been bowling.

Durham might have declared once the 400 mark was passed, having just missed out on another batting point, but plodded on to 428 all out. This left Ben Raine 51 not out, which had taken almost two and a half hours. Valuable runs nevertheless. Leicestershire's reply was in the same vein, with Azad, fresh from his match saving century last week against Worcestershire, dropping anchor after the early loss of Evans and Rhodes. At the close of day two Azad was 65 not out, with skipper Ackermann a little more adventurous on58 not out. Leicester 159-2 overnight from 67 overs. A day of attrition you might say.

Day three was memorable initially for a fine bowling performance from Matt Potts, the young Durham seam bowler, with a career best performance of 6-58. He dismissed the limpet like Azad, caught behind for 66, before running through the middle order. The only real resistance came from Ackermann with a dogged 81, made in three hours forty minutes, and some late runs from Swindells and Hendricks. Wright came into bat with a runner at last man and it took spinner Trevaskis to get rid of him. Leicestershire all out 273.

A day to remember for Matthew Potts.

The injured batsman, Chris Wright, stands at square leg.

By now Leicester were without the services of both opening bowlers, Wright and Hendricks, with injuries and Durham were able to go to town with a vengeance against the weakened attack. Jones and Dickson put on a rapid first wicket partnership of 152, making good use of the short pavilion side boundary. Dickson went for 84, but Jones continued to achieve his first county championship century for Durham, both batsmen hitting three sixes. Again most people seemed to think Durham should have declared before the close in an effort to get a wicket or two, but they batted on to 239-2 before declaring the next morning, leaving Leicestershire 395 to win.

We did not stay for the final day, which proved to be just as well, as the rather unhelpful wicket made it difficult to dislodge the Leicestershire batsmen, who obviously had no hope of chasing the victory target. Opener Sam Evans led the way of this backs to the wall exercise with a marathon 77 not out in an innings of five hours. The only small ray of sunshine for Durham was Olly Gibson's first wicket when he dismissed Rhodes caught behind from what someone described as his worst ball of the day!

Still some plus points from Durham, with what could be described as their second winning draw, which leaves them with some selection problems if Lees is fit again to face Nottinghamshire at the Riverside next Thursday. All the batsmen are making runs.