Durham in the box seat thanks to Clark century
GRAHAM Clark’s maiden century put Durham in command on the second day of their Specsavers County Championship match against Glamorgan at -Chester-leStreet.
It was evenly balanced when Paul Collingwood joined Clark on 87-3 in reply to 295, but Durham’s record stand against the Welsh county of 185 helped them to 280-4.
Clark was out for 109 three overs before the close but Collingwood remained unbeaten on 72, the sixth time in his last seven innings he has passed 50 - including 127 and 92 not out at Swansea.
Marchant de Lange carried easily the greatest threat in the visiting attack and took three of the wickets.
However, they continued to feed the pull in front of mid-wicket, which brought Clark a six and eight of the 17 fours in his 135-ball knock.
After Glamorgan’s remaining three wickets added 74 in the morning the cooler day produced 354 runs compared with 221 on the sunbaked first day.
De Lange chanced his arm with the bat it in making 37 before Barry McCarthy wrapped up the Glamorgan tail.
De Lange drove him for a straight six before the Irishman found just enough swing to find the edge.
Lukas Carey also went for his shots and made 10 before driving to mid-off and two balls later Michael Hogan edged a lavish drive to Stuart Poynter, leaving McCarthy with 355.
In his final match for Durham, the out-of-form Stephen Cook made 14 before de Lange had him caught behind off a tentative prod.
Jack Burnham, returning after a broken thumb, contributed 25 to a stand of 41 with Cameron Steel before he edged Carey on to the chest of wicketkeeper Tom Cullen and the ball rebounded into the hands of Colin Ingram at first slip. When de Lange returned for a second spell Steel upper cut his first ball for four, drove the second to the cover boundary and watched the fourth balloon over the keeper for four byes. Yet in attempting a second upper cut he edged a poor ball to Cullen to depart for 32. That brought in Collingwood, who did well to keep out de Lange before beginning to accumulate steadily while relying on Clark to pepper the boundaries.
The 24-year-old Cumbrian finally fell when he followed a de Lange away swinger and edged to give Cullen his third catch - but he had put Durham in a strong position.