Day 4: Durham 475 & 175 for two declared drew with Derbyshire 267 & 280 for five at Emirates Riverside. Durham 14 points, Derbyshire 11 points.
Wayne Madsen and Matt Critchley scored stoic half-centuries to thwart Durham’s bid for victory and to secure Derbyshire’s third draw in a row in the LV= Insurance County Championship.
Durham required 10 wickets to record their first win of the campaign, while Derbyshire had to bat out 96 overs or attempt an ambitious push for a victory target of 384 at Emirates Riverside.
The home side claimed early wickets, but Madsen and Critchley combined for a stand of 138 to take the sting out of the game. Late strikes from Ben Raine and Paul Coughlin gave Durham hope, but they were forced to settle for a draw on home soil. As a result, both teams remain winless in Group One after their opening three matches.
In need of early wickets on the final day, Raine broke the opening stand by clean bowling Wood with a delivery that kept slightly low. However, in the theme of the day the Durham pace bowlers toiled on a flat pitch.
Raine returned at the start of the afternoon session and notched the key scalp of Du Plooy lbw. Richard Kettleborough deliberated over the decision, but opted to send the left-hander on his way. The in-form Critchley stabilised the innings with Madsen by raising the tempo, bringing up a stand of fifty from only 60 balls.
Madsen continued to thwart the Durham bowlers, and secured his second half-century of the match from 75 balls. Madsen and Critchley’s defiance allowed the duo to post their century stand before the tea break, inching the visitors towards safety.
Critchley joined Madsen in passing fifty after tea, cutting a wide delivery from Raine to the boundary. It continued the 24-year-old’s excellent start to the campaign, posting his fourth half-century in three games.
After a couple of close appeals from the hosts, Coughlin broke the partnership by pinning Critchley lbw for 69. but only after the duo produced a record fourth-wicket stand for Derbyshire against Durham. One wicket quickly became two as Madsen’s vigil was ended when Raine found the shoulder of his bat and Stuart Poynter took a sprawling catch.
Amid precise bowling from the home side with the new ball, Harvey Hosein and Brooke Guest were on point in their defence to allow the visitors to hold out for a draw.
Day 4 reaction with James Franklin
Day Three: Durham 475 (David Bedingham 257, Sam Conners 5-83) and 175 for two declared (Alex Lees 78*, Fynn Hudson-Prentice 1-27) vs Derbyshire 267 (Wayne Madsen 76, Chris Rushworth 6-58) and 10 for none
Durham will go into the final day’s play of their LV= Insurance County Championship match at Emirates Riverside against Derbyshire needing ten wickets to force a result after a day that saw Chris Rushworth became Durham’s second highest first class wicket taker.
A hundred run partnership between Harvey Hosein and Brooke Guest proved difficult to break before a six wicket haul from Chris Rushworth saw Derbyshire bowled out for 267, still 208 runs short of Durham’s first innings total.
Unbeaten fifties from Alex Lees and David Bedingham led Durham to declare with a lead of 383 runs and five overs remaining in the day.
Derbyshire resumed on 148 for five still trailing by 327 runs, though their position was soon weakened when Paul Coughlin drew a leading edge out of Wayne Madsen, the Derbyshire skipper unable to add to his overnight score of 76.
The home side were halted though as Hosein and Guest dug in, the pair putting on 83 runs together before Guest edged behind trying to pull Rushworth for 37. The wicket was Rushworth’s 518th first class wicket and also gave the Durham veteran his 27th five-wicket haul.
Despite the loss of his partner, Hosein continued his defiant knock as he brought up his fourth consecutive first class fifty with a solid punch back down the ground for four.
Fynn Hudson-Prentice had dug in well until Matt Salisbury took the new ball and re-arranged the Derbyshire man’s stumps, the lower-order batsman going for 12.
Sam Connors came and went as he tamely lobbed a catch to Alex Lees to give Rushworth his sixth of the innings. Rushworth’s wicket of Connors saw him overtake Simon Brown and now moves into second place in the clubs leading wicket takers in first-class cricket, slowly creeping up to Graham Onions record of 527.
Salisbury finished off the Derbyshire innings as he found Hosein’s edge to leave Derbyshire 267 all out, trailing by 208 runs.
Young had looked solid at the crease as Durham got their second innings underway, only for the New Zealand opener to chop onto his own stumps off the bowling of Hudson-Prentice for 21.
Matt Critchley took the second wicket of the innings, trapping Borthwick lbw for 15 as he looked to accelerate but 78 not out from Lees and Bedingham’s quick fire fifty set up the declaration with a 383 run lead.
Despite a couple of uncomfortable moments for Luis Reece and Tom Wood, the Derbyshire openers survived the five over session to reach stumps without loss.
Day 3 Reaction: Chris Rushworth
Day 2 Reaction: Scott Borthwick
Day One: Durham 307 for four (David Bedingham 170*, Jack Burnham 75) vs Derbyshire
David Bedingham marked his 27th birthday with his ninth first-class century, guiding Durham into a strong position on day one of their LV= Insurance County Championship match against Derbyshire.
Sam Conners had put the hosts on the back foot with successive strikes to reduce them to seven for two. Bedingham arrived at the crease and produced century stands with Alex Lees and Jack Burnham to turn the day in the favour of the north-east outfit.
The South African displayed an attractive array of strokes on his way to his second hundred of the season, remaining 170 unbeaten at the close with his team on 307 for four well placed to post a substantial first-innings score.
After opting to bat on a newly-laid square at Emirates Riverside, Durham were rocked by an impressive new-ball spell from Conners, who struck with back-to-back deliveries. Will Young scored only a single before he knicked off to second slip. Scott Borthwick endured an unhappy homecoming in his first home game since his return when he was pinned lbw.
Bedingham survived Conners’ hat-trick ball, but the Derbyshire seamer maintained the pressure. Lees was dropped at second slip, while Bedingham put in a desperate dive to avoid being run out for one by Fynn Hudson-Prentice. The two players stemmed the tide, bringing up a stand of fifty before lunch courtesy of successive Bedingham boundaries.
Their partnership was only broken by Conners with a peach of a delivery to remove Lees’ off-stump, only after the pair had passed their century stand. Derbyshire failed to receive the rub of the green in the afternoon session. Luis Reece found Bedingham’s outside edge on 76, but the right-hander found the gap between wicketkeeper and first slip before Burnham inside-edged a turning Matt Critchley delivery millimetres past his stumps.
Bedingham made the most of his reprieve, notching his second century of the term from 143 deliveries with a push past mid-on. Burnham then ended a drought without a first-class half-century dating back to August 2019. The duo secured Durham’s first batting bonus point in a partnership worth 134.
Critchley eventually dismissed an ailing Burnham when he was caught behind on 75 after struggling with a back problem. Bedingham continued to press towards the close and posted his second score of over 150 in the County Championship, drilling George Scrimshaw straight to the fence for his 21st boundary. Durham notched their third bonus point before the close passing the 300-run mark with Bedingham and Ned Eckersley returning on day two.
Day 1 Reaction: David Bedingham,