Dickson breaks record with third ton in a row
SEAN Dickson completed a century in each innings as Durham continued to dominate Worcestershire on the third day of their Lv=insurance County Championship match at New Road.
Dickson, who scored 104 in the first innings, smashed 105 (73 balls) second time round as the visitors chased quick runs to set up a victory charge on the final day.
After bowling the home side out for 309 (Joe Leach 62,105 balls, Matty Potts six for 62), Durham declined to enforce the follow on, instead sending out openers Dickson and Alex Lees with licence to attack.
Dickson responded with a 69-ball century, the second-fastest first-class century for Durham behind only Ben Stokes’ 64-ball ton in the first innings, before a declaration at 170 for one left Worcestershire a target of 442 in a day and 22 overs.
They were 85 for two at the close, Chris Rushworth having dismissed both openers.
Sean Dickson, who became the first Durham player ever to score centuries in three successive first class innings, said: “It was a freak hundred today. We just went out there to get a score on the board so we could bowl at them this evening and it just happened.
“I did realise when I was on about 60 that I was in with a chance of the fastest century for Durham but they kept bowling really wide down the leg side. I was going for it. It wasn’t to be but I was really happy with the performance.
“We did the right thing not to enforce the follow on. It is quite hard work for the bowlers, especially on pitches like this, so it gave them a couple of hours off the field so they could get some recovery going and hopefully we can take eight more wickets tomorrow. We’ve got the quality and the bowlers to do it.” After the spectacular fare of day two, when sixes rained from the bat of Ben Stokes, the third morning brought the opposite extreme. Forty minutes passed without a run off the bat at one point as
Worcestershire’s lower order defended doggedly.
Stokes opened the bowling upon the resumption but remained wicketless as Leach added 54 in 15 overs with Ben Cox and 62 in18 with Josh Baker.
After Cox edged Potts behind, Baker batted with impressive composure to put the previous day’s mauling by the England captain behind him. The 18-year-old made 27 from 64 balls before falling to smart slip catch by David Bedingham off Matt Salisbury.
Leach completed his 21st first-class half-century but fell to the second ball after lunch when he edged Chris Rushworth to Scott Borthwick at second slip. That was 280 for nine but last pair Adam Finch and debutant Ben Gibbon added a valuable 29 in 19 overs before the latter was bowled by Rushworth.
Durham chose to give their bowlers a rest and sent out Lees and Dickson in T20 mode. They rattled up 102 in 14 overs before tea and Dickson struck eight sixes on his way to his fourth century of the season and third in successive innings. He is the fifth Durham player to achieve the feat of scoring two centuries in a championship match.
Worcestershire started briskly with 30 in four overs but then Rushworth struck twice in seven balls. He bowled Ed Pollock through the gate and trapped Jake Libby lbw with one that kept low. Azhar Ali and Jack Haynes prevented further damage with an unbroken stand of 50 before the close as Stokes delivered another five wicketless overs.
Worcestershire all-rounder Joe Leach, who scored 62, said: “We’ve had as good a day as we could have hoped for but we are still on the wrong side of the game at the moment and have got a lot of hard work to do tomorrow. The lower order work really hard on their batting, they are brave and take it very seriously. We saw that the way Adam and Ben played to put nearly 20 overs more into the Durham guys’ legs.”