Callum Parkinson claims maiden Durham five-for in the Championship as Durham draw with Essex
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Day 4
Callum Parkinson collected his maiden five-wicket haul for Durham in the County Championship, but the County Championship fixture at Seat Unique Riverside ended in a draw.
Such an outcome had always appeared probable once the third day’s play had been lost. However, having made 488 and taken a 130-run lead on first innings, Essex did their best to force a victory on the final afternoon, only for their efforts to founder on the broad bat of Alex Lees, who made 48 not out in 128 minutes and had steered his side to 131 for two when rain and bad light stopped play at 4.40.
The teams shook hands shortly afterwards, at which point David Bedingham, Lees’ third-wicket partner, was unbeaten on 33.
The most notable event of the morning session came in the fifth over of the day when Browne back cut Ben Raine to the boundary to reach his first hundred in 22 Championship innings, a bleak run stretching back to the game against Kent in April 2023.
Browne’s century was also a tribute to his patience in this match. He had batted 286 minutes and faced 238 balls to reach the landmark. Five overs later, another boundary from Browne brought Essex their third batting point but that achievement was swiftly followed by the dismissal of Jordan Cox, who was bowled by Callum Parkinson for 36 when he played outside a ball that was deflected via the back pad to the leg stump.
Parkinson soon collected his second wicket of the morning when he clean bowled Matt Critchley for three with a fine ball that turned past the outside edge and hit off stump. Noah Thain then helped Browne add 55 in 11 overs before being caught at midwicket by Scott Borthwick off Colin Ackermann for 23, but Essex reached lunch on 450 for six with Browne unbeaten on 169.
The visitors looked to score quick runs in the afternoon session and lost four wickets in doing so, including two run outs in three balls. Browne departed for 184 when attempting a third run and failing to beat Alex Lees throw from fine leg and then Harry Duke was sent back by Simon Harmer but Borthwick’s return from midwicket was too sharp.
Parkinson then dismissed Harmer and Jamie Porter in the same over to finish with five for 131 from 31 overs in Essex’s 488 all out.
The visitors’ hopes of causing a collapse were boosted when Borthwick played across a ball from Porter and was lbw for four in the third over of Durham’s second innings. However, Lees and Ackermann put on 75 for the second wicket before Ackermann was caught at slip by Cox off Critchley for 32, a fate that had appeared to befall him on 20, only for the umpires to rule that the ball hadn’t carried.
Durham took 12 points from the game and Essex received 14, a return which leaves the visitors equal on points with Surrey at the top of the First Division. The champions lead the table purely by virtue of having taken one wicket more than Essex this season.
Day 3
Durham’s Vitality County Championship match against Essex seems likely to end in a draw after rain wiped out the third day of the match at the Seat Unique Riverside.
Drizzle set in a couple of hours before the scheduled start of play and there were soon puddles on the outfield at Chester-le-Street. It was no surprise when the umpires, David Millns and Rob White pulled the plug on the day’s play at 3.30.
When cricket resumes on the final morning, Essex will be 314 for three in reply to Durham’s 358. Initial interest will centre on whether Nick Browne can score the six runs he needs for his century but the next dozen overs is likely to become a battle for bonus points and, barring the home side collapsing, it is difficult to see how a positive result can be obtained on the final day
Day 2
A century by Feroze Khushi and Nick Browne’s unbeaten 94 enabled Essex to take control of their Vitality County Championship match against Durham at Seat Unique Riverside.
Replying to the home side’s 358, the First Division leaders were 314 for three at the close, leaving their side just 44 runs in arrears and perhaps laying the foundations for Essex’s third victory in four matches this season.
Durham’s batters will have something to say about that, of course, on top of which this Riverside pitch is still good for batting and the weather forecast for Sunday is grim. But nothing should detract from the quality of Khushi’s chanceless century, the second of his career and his first since he reached three figures at Canterbury in 2022.
And even when the 24-year-old had been dismissed by Callum Parkinson for 107, Browne shared an unbroken stand of 54 with Jordan Cox to leave his side well placed to take a first-innings lead.
The first wicket to fall in the morning session was that of the nightwatchman, Sam Cook, who was bowled by Paul Coughlin for 25 in the nineteenth over of the innings. By then, however, the stand-in Essex skipper had helped Dean Elgar put on 64 for the first wicket, a partnership which removed much of the shine from the new ball.
Five minutes before lunch, however, Durham took the wicket they most wanted when Elgar’s loose drive outside the off stump to a ball from Matthew Potts edged a catch to Ollie Robinson. The opener’s dismissal for 46 left his side on 97 for two at lunch but Potts could reflect that he had been unfortunate not to get an lbw decision against the South African in the first half-hour of play, a period in which Ben Raine had also had two confident leg before appeals against Elgar turned down.
In the afternoon session, Khushi and Browne carefully consolidated their side’s position with Khushi being especially quick to seize on anything loose, driving and pulling Brydon Carse to the boundary in the space of three balls. He reached his fifty off 102 balls when he off-drove Parkinson to the boundary and celebrated the achievement two deliveries later with a straight drive for four.
The hundred partnership was put up in less than two hours and perhaps the most noticeable feature of the afternoon session was the ease with which the pair dealt with Durham’s six-man attack on a good batting pitch. Off-spinner Colin Ackermann bowled the last over before tea, at which point Essex were 220 for two, with Khushi on 88 and Browne unbeaten on 46.
The evening session continued much like the afternoon’s. Carse overpitched in the first over after the resumption and Khushi clipped him through midwicket for four to get into the nineties. A glance to fine leg two overs later and then a punch through midwicket off Ackermann took him to his hundred off 156 balls. He had batted 203 minutes and hit 16 fours.
Ten minutes later, Browne reached his fifty off 143 balls via a slice of good fortune when an attempted off-drive to a ball from Ackermann only produced an edge between Robinson and first slip Coughlin. Liberated by that achievement, Browne took two successive fours off Ackermann but three overs later, Khushi drove Parkinson straight to Graham Clark at shortish extra cover and departed for 107.
Browne and his new partner Jordan Cox soon had to face the challenge of the new ball but they did so with little fuss.
Day 1 Durham 3587/10, Essex 5/0.
Colin Ackermann made his first century for Durham in the County Championship as the home side shared the spoils with Essex on the first day of their Vitality County Championship match at Seat Unique Riverside.
The former Leicestershire skipper showed exemplary patience in making 112, a 294-minute innings that formed the bedrock of his side’s 358 all out. The Essex openers safely negotiated the last two overs of the day to finish on five without loss.
The visiting bowlers stuck to their task well on a pitch that encouraged fast scoring. Sam Cook took three for 60 and Jamie Porter, three for 57, but the visitors would probably have enjoyed a much better day had they not dropped Ollie Robinson on 26 and Ackermann on 90, when the Yorkshire loanee Harry Duke put down a sharp chance off Matt Critchley.
As it was, both David Bedingham and Robinson made fifties with the latter’s 90 being his fifth consecutive first-class half-century this season
But the day had begun badly for Durham, who lost both openers for single figures inside the first half-hour of play. Scott Borthwick edged Porter wide to Duke’s right but the wicketkeeper took a superb one-handed catch. Next over, Alex Lees was adjudged caught by Duke off Cook but the ex-England batter appeared astonished by the decision.
Those dismissals left Durham poorly placed on 11 for two but the next hour’s play belonged largely to Bedingham, who hit seven fours and a six in reaching a fifty off 47 balls and had made 52 of the 73 runs in his second-wicket partnership with Ackermann when he was bowled by a magnificent ball from Porter which angled in before straightening to beat a blameless forward-defensive shot.
Undaunted by this reverse, Ackermann and Robinson continued to score freely and Durham reached lunch on 129 for three after 29 overs.
Robinson began the afternoon session by hitting Cook’s first two deliveries to the backward point boundary but he was then dropped on 26 off the third when Shane Snater put down a straightforward chance at point, Undeterred, Robinson cover-drove the last ball of the over to the cover boundary and continued to bat with immense fluency, reaching his fifth consecutive half-century of the season off 48 balls, having hit 11 boundaries.
The dominance of Durham’s batters was maintained when Ackermann, who had played the anchor role admirably, reached his fifty off 117 balls and after 164 minutes of selfless concentration. However, just when a century beckoned for Robinson, he misjudged a routine push on the leg side off Harmer, gave a simple catch to Nick Browne at midwicket.
Four overs later, Harmer bowled Graham Clark for three with a classic off-spinner and four overs after tea Cook brought one back to have Brydon Carse leg before wicket for 18, but Ackermann’s patient accumulation continued and he reached three figures off 199 balls with a back-foot cover-drive off Harmer. It was only his seventh boundary.
Just over half an hour later Ackermann fell to the new ball when Cook had him leg before wicket and the session improved for the visitors when Paul Coughlin pulled Porter straight to Browne at a shortish wide mid-on and departed for 30. Snater took the final two wickets to fall but not before Durham had collected a third batting point.
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