Durham persevered through the first hour to eventually make the breakthrough when Mitchell Claydon has Moeen Ali caught n the slips by Michael Di Venuto for 37. He struck again in the same over, sending Ali’s replacement in the middle, Alex Kervezee, back to the pavilion without scoring.
Ian Blackwell claimed the fifth wicket the following over, reducing Worcester to 128-5 when he trapped James Cameron lbw on 47. The spinner then picked up the wicket of Gareth Andrew six overs later, who was bowled on 15.
Worcester reached 174 before the seventh scalp was claimed, when Pardoe was caught by Di Venuto off Blackwell on 27.
Scott Borthwick claimed the eighth wicket just before the lunch break, when Ben Scott was caught by Mark Stoneman on 15 with Worcester 185-8.
Borthwick struck with the first ball of the second session when Kemar Roach was caught by Di Venuto without scoring and he went on to secure Durham’s win when Callum Thorp caught Richardson on 5.
Durhamccc.co.uk spoke to Geoff Cook after Durham’s 151 run win, “It’s nice to take a win into the winter with you especially when the team played really well in the last two four day matches. They were outstanding down at Sussex and in this game, where we had a small chance of winning the Championship, I thought the players were excellent, batting in tough conditions on the first day but on a bit of a wearing wicket we knew if we got runs on the board we’d have a good chance.
“”It was a decent wicket to bowl on in the first innings, it always is, and I thought Worcester played well in tough bowling conditions early on. In the first two thirds of the season we were probably the best team in division one, we played some excellent cricket and got ourselves in a good position but a little bit of bad weather, one or two performances where if we’d played a bit better we’d have benefitted from it and missing one or two players at crucial times so in the final third of the season a few things conspired against us a little bit but also, we didn’t play well when we had to play well. “
Keep an eye on Durham TV this week for an end of season interview with Geoff Cook