Durham and Somerset drew their LV= County Championship clash at Emirates Durham ICG after resolve from the hosts batsmen prevented the visitors claiming a potential win
With Somerset resuming on 220-8 after two days of rain, it took just 2.5 overs before Graham Onions struck, claiming the ninth wicket, after Waller was caught behind on 4.
The visitors first innings was brought to an end on 267 when Dockerell was run out by Mark Stoneman from deep mid wicket.
Michael Di Venuto and Will Smith put on a 61 run partnership before the latter was caught by Overton off Trego for 22.
Di Venuto reached 38 before he was caught at cover by Waller, off Meschede, for 38.
Durham were 163-4, with a slight lead, after Paul Collingwood and Stoneman were both trapped lbw by Overton for 36 and 35 respectively.
Gordon Muchall became Meschede’s second victim when he was caught by Trego on 14.
Durham lost Phil Mustard and Callum Thorp cheaply and were 186-7 with a fragile lead of 44.
There was still time at this point for Somerset to potentially roll Durham over and still have time to knock off the required number of runs to claim a win.
However, Graham Onions added a valuable 20 to the total, before he was bowled by Philander, and his 27 run partnership with Ian Blackwell, who remained unbeaten at the end on 38, just edged Durham into the safety zone.
Claydon added 2, before he was caught by Weller off Trego, at this point Durham’s lead was over 90 runs and with less than 8 scheduled overs remaining both teams shook hands for the draw.
At the close of play Durhamccc.co.uk spoke to Phil Mustard, “I did get a bit nervous when we lost a few wickets in quick succession but then Blackie steadied the ship a little bit and Bunny came in and got a quick 20 and really put it past them.
“We’re moving in the right direction, people are getting 20’s and 30’s and we just need them now to go on to get 70’s and 100’s. We’ve got a one day game tomorrow and we need to win that to get us into the winning mentality, and then we have a week off with plenty of training before travelling to Surrey for a one dayer next weekend and then on to Somerset for our next Championship game. I think if we can put in a good performance tomorrow that will give the batters a bit more confidence and we can move on from there.”