DURHAM COAST HOME FOR WELCOME WIN
HOSTS CLAIM THIRD CHAMPIONSHIP SUCCESS, LEAPFROGGING OPPONENTS DERBYSHIRE
Durham completed their third Specsavers County Championship win in five games as they beat Derbyshire by nine wickets at Chester-le-Street.
The visitors were all out 15 minutes before lunch for 354 yesterday, leaving Keaton Jennings and Tom Latham to score 39 for the maximum points win which took Durham above their opponents in the Division Two table.
After edging a short, wide delivery to fall to the first ball of the match, Jennings was immediately fed something similar by Hardus Viljoen but studiously left it alone.
He got off the mark by coming down hard enough on a yorker to squeeze it through mid-off for three and in the ninth over he cut Viljoen for two fours - but with only eight needed he went to pull another short delivery and lobbed it to square leg to depart for 16.
Latham stroked two off-side fours off Harry Podmore, on loan from Middlesex, in the next over to finish on 23.
Durham needed just under an hour to wrap up the Derbyshire innings when they resumed on 305 for six in pleasant sunshine.
Graham Onions struck with the day’s fourth ball. After seeing Harvey Hosein pick up an edged four and a single, reducing the deficit to six, he had Tony Palladino caught behind.
Podmore collected the runs which put Derbyshire ahead then edged Chris Rushworth between slips and gully for four to reach double figures. But without addition a similar edge in Rushworth’s next over flew at head height for Ryan Pringle to hold the catch at third slip. Two balls later Onions swung a delivery in to have Hosein lbw before Imran Tahir nonchalantly slapped him square for four then sliced another boundary wide of gully.
He saw little of the strike in the next few overs as Hardus Viljoen showed some pedigree, hooking Rushworth for four before Durham turned to the leg-spin of Cameron Steel.
In his second over Tahir tried to turn him to leg and looked shocked to be adjudged lbw, ending a stand of 29 with Viljoen on 19.
Nottinghamshire remain on track for an immediate return to top-flight cricket after beating Northants by 163 runs on the final day of their Second Division fixture at Trent Bridge.
The Division Two leaders needed just over an hour to take the final five visitors wickets, with Adam Rossington unable to bat due to the thumb injury he sustained on the second day). Samit Patel closed out the contest, finishing with three for 17 and Jake Ball picked up 3-86.