Bat’s not good as Durham slip to two-day loss
DURHAM suffered a humiliating seven-wicket LV County Championship Division Two defeat to Northamptonshire – in a game which did not even last two days.
Yet again it was their fragile batting which cost them dear at Chester-le-Street as they failed to pass 150 in either of their two innings.
Durham had given themselves hope yesterday after a disappointing display on day one.
They claimed the four remaining Northants first-innings’ wickets within 22 balls for the cost of an extra nine runs from their overnight score of 189-6 – restricting the visitors to a lead of 69.
However, Northamptonshire’s bowlers were outstanding for the second day on the bounce.
Ben Sanderson captured four wickets, taking his tally for the match to 7-80.
Richard Gleeson and Nathan Buck provided the support with three strikes apiece to bowl Durham out for just 133 in their second innings.
The visitors knocked off the 65 runs needed before the close on day two for the loss of three wickets, securing a comfortable victory.
Northants began on 189-6 after the late wicket of Saif Zaib off the final ball of the previous evening.
Durham wasted no time in cleaning up the tail as the ever-reliable Chris Rushworth claimed three wickets as the visitors lost their last five wickets for just nine runs.
Matt Salisbury notched his fourth strike when Sanderson clipped a shot straight to Barry McCarthy, ending the innings on 198.
Sanderson put Durham on the back foot immediately as he dismissed Alex Lees and Gareth Harte in the same over.
Gleeson bowled his first overs with the red ball since April and he did not have to wait long for his first wicket, finding Graham Clark’s outside edge – allowing Brett Hutton to take the catch at first slip.
Gleeson then removed Michael Richardson and Indian all-rounder Axar Patel, ripping through the middle order to leave the home side in huge trouble at lunch.
The only batsman to offer resistance was opener Cameron Steel.
The 22-year-old has endured a lean time during the campaign but stuck to his task in the middle.
He did receive two slices of luck, being dropped on 47 and 49 before reaching his half-century off 112 deliveries.
Buck ended a decent stand between the opener and captain Paul Collingwood, bowling the veteran for 27 before Sanderson returned to produce a fine delivery to finally dismiss Steel.
Buck and Sanderson removed the tail with relative ease to bowl Durham out for their paltry total.
Northants required just 65 runs to secure their third win of the campaign.
Ben Curran fell for 11 when he was caught by Steel off Rushworth.
Spinner Patel captured the wickets of Luke Procter and Ricardo Vasconcelos but Alex Wakely and Richard Levi were able to knock off the winning runs.
The result means Durham have now lost six of their 11 LV County Championship Division Two matches so far this summer. Their hopes of bouncing back to form will be severely tested when they resume their campaign on Tuesday.
Durham Coach Jon Lewis, meanwhile, said after their loss: “Batting throughout the Championship year hasn’t been great. We’ve had very few days where we’d say it’s gone as well as it should have done. Amongst the batting group the confidence isn’t great. At home most pitches have offered the bowlers something. If you’re not a confident batting group and there’s a little bit going on for the bowlers it becomes difficult, probably more difficult than it is.”