Day 4 Durham 517/6 & 342/4 & Leicestershire 422ao * 259/8
An unbeaten century by Peter Handscomb led a successful rearguard action by Leicestershire to secure a draw with leaders Durham who go top of the Division 2 table by 36 points. The Australian wicketkeeper-batter finished on 136 not out, his second hundred for the county, before bad light ultimately had the final word with Leicestershire 259 for eight with 10 overs left in the match.Durham will feel that they were denied by the elements, but Leicestershire had battled through 20 overs at eight down, largely against spinners Matt Parkinson and Liam Trevaskis with fielders crowded round the bat, but Handscomb managing the strike so well that ninth wicket partner Ed Barnes faced only 43 balls in 71 minutes at the crease.Earlier, Durham had declared at 343 for four after Alex Lees (145) and David Bedingham (145 not out) had shared a 243-run stand for the third wicket, giving themselves 89 overs to take 10 wickets and Leicestershire a theoretical 439 to win.Ben Raine finished with four for 55, including two wickets in his first four deliveries with Matty Potts and Parkinson collecting two each. Their efforts were ultimately in vain but the 13 points they took from the match stretches their lead to 36 ahead.Durham’s requirements for the run chase were met after 47 were added in 28 balls to the overnight total before the declaration came.Lees could add only seven to his 138 not out before he was caught in the deep slog-sweeping Callum Parkinson, who also bowled his fellow slow left-armer Liam Trevaskis for seven. Bedingham was the biggest contributor in this entertaining burst, plundering 33 from 16 balls.Some Durham supporters grumbled that batting on had used up valuable bowling time but this pitch had yielded runs at more than 4.5 per over in the opening three days and skipper Scott Borthwick would have been mindful of Leicestershire chasing down 389 to win at 4.56 per over to beat Yorkshire at Headingley in April.In the event, the possibility of a Leicestershire win receded almost immediately as Raine had Sol Budinger caught behind swinging at one he perhaps should have left and Hill edging to first slip first ball, which he did need to play. By the seventh over, Leicestershire were 23 for three, Patel having picked up two boundaries in the over off Raine before he was caught at deep backward square off a top-edged hook as he went for another.Handscomb and Colin Ackermann added 61 without further loss before lunch, although the latter had enjoyed a slice of luck 31 when Bedingham put down an edge to second slip, again off Raine.Potts dismissed Ackermann soon after lunch, Leicestershire’s first-innings centurion driving loosely away from his body to nick one through to Ollie Robinson off an inside edge.Much now rested Handscomb, who reached his half-century from 73 balls, and the South African Wiaan Mulder to keep Durham’s bowlers away from a lengthy tail.Their cause was helped by a stoppage for bad light and light rain, taking eight overs out of the game, but set back again when they returned after an early tea to lose Mulder caught behind – a decision with which he plainly disagreed – and new man Tom Scriven caught at second slip in consecutive overs as Raine took his fourth wicket and Potts.After Matt Parkinson entered the attack to dismiss Chris Wright, caught at slip, with his fourth ball, Leicestershire were 181 for seven. It should have been 187 for eight in the leg-spinner’s next over, but Callum Parkinson survived a chance to short leg.It was only a brief reprieve, however, Callum judged leg before on the front foot in his brother’s next over. He had been dismissed by Matt in that way in the twins’ only previous first-class meeting, at Grace Road in 2019, in which by coincidence Callum also trapped Matt leg before.With 26 overs still left, Leicestershire were now desperate for the weather to intervene but as that threat receded it was down to Handscomb to protect his two remaining partners.The Australian picked off boundaries with relative ease as he completed his second hundred for the county with his 14th, although he had an escape on 110 when a leading edge off Liam Trevaskis looped just beyond the reach of Borthwick at short mid-on and survived a confident appeal for caught behind just before the light closed in for the last time.
Day 3 Durham 517/6 & 296/2, Leicestershire 422ao – Durham lead by 391
Division Two leaders Durham will seek to turn a lead of 391 runs into a fifth win of the season on the final day of their LV= Insurance County Championship meeting with Leicestershire after opener Alex Lees posted his second hundred of the match.Lees, who made 101 in the first innings, was stranded on 99 when bad light threatened to end play earlier, but after stewing in the dressing room for almost three quarters of an hour was able to celebrate shortly after the resumption.The left-hander, scoring tons in each innings for the first time in his first-class career, finished on 138 not out with David Bedingham unbeaten on 112, the third-wicket pair having added 212 so far as Durham closed on 296 for two.Earlier, Leicestershire posted their second highest total of the season but were still 95 behind on first innings, despite Colin Ackermann’s fine 146, Ben Raine taking four for 114 and on-loan leg spinner Matt Parkinson three for 115 as the home side were bowled out for 422.Durham skipper Scott Borthwick will look to declare early, bearing in mind it took his bowlers almost 110 overs to take 10 first-innings wickets on a pitch still holding together, and with the seemingly batter-friendly Kookaburra ball.Durham were able to replace 19-year-old Stanley McAlindon with Matthew Potts following the latter’s release by England. Leicestershire’s young leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed, who had been named as a potential substitute in this match, remained with Ben Stokes’s squad.The addition of Potts, who took 13 wickets in the corresponding fixture last season, added to the challenge facing Leicestershire on the third morning in cool, overcast conditions after resuming on 335 for four.Nonetheless, while they avoided the follow-on and picked up a couple more batting points, they would have been disappointed to lose their last six wickets for 77.In the event, Potts too often dropped short to no great effect in his opening six-over burst, while Raine demonstrated the virtue of bowling at the stumps by dismissing Wiaan Mulder, Tom Scriven and Chris Wright all leg before in two spells, one from each end, lifting his wickets tally to 34 for the season, two more than Potts.Ackermann, with whom Mulder shared a 106-run stand for the fifth wicket, was much harder to dislodge, yet with the sixth 150 of his first-class career just one boundary away a rather weary-looking cut shot at a ball from Matt Parkinson outside off stump saw him caught at gully.Potts returned after lunch, bowled full and straight and nipped out Callum Parkinson and Matt Salisbury in the space of three deliveries of his second over, knocking off stump out of the ground in each case, in so doing grabbing a third bowling point for Durham in the nick of time.As in the first innings, Durham went hard against the new ball and had doubled their lead by the 20th over, although at a cost of a couple of wickets. Michael Jones was well caught in the leg-side deep by Ed Barnes as he pulled the ex-Durham seamer Salisbury. Scott Borthwick pulled Salisbury for six over the shorter boundary but misread a ball from off-spinner Ackermann, who took an almost casual return catch one-handed above his head. Meanwhile, Lees combined muscle and innovation to post 50 from 65 balls before Bedingham launched into Ackermann and then Parkinson with driven sixes. By tea, Durham’s lead was 240, putting them on course to be 400 in front by the close.Bedingham drove Barnes for a couple of boundaries, the first of which took him to 53 from 56 balls, and while thereafter the accumulation of runs was more steady than spectacular, the pair had still extended the lead to 315 when bad light forced a 44-minute interruption.After his tantalising wait on 99, Lees blocked out a maiden from Ackermann before lofting Parkinson over long-on for his 10th four from 158 balls, picking up his first six the over afterwards, although he was dropped on the midwicket boundary in doing so. As the pair sought to score quickly, Bedingham joined him in reaching three figures from 105 balls, having hit eight fours and four sixes, three of them off Parkinson.
Day 2 Durham 517/6 (declared) Leicestershire 335/4 trail by 182.
A century by Colin Ackermann against the county he will be representing next season led a solid Leicestershire response after Ollie Robinson’s career-best unbeaten 167 had set up a Durham declaration at 517 for six on day two of their LV= Insurance County Championship meeting at the Uptonsteel County Ground.Ackermann, who will move to the North East at the end of the season along with Leicestershire team-mate Callum Parkinson, is 104 not out as his current side ended the day 335 for four. The 32-year-old all-rounder shared a fifth-wicket partnership of 117 with Australian international Peter Handscomb, who made 55 after opener Sol Budinger’s 51 earlier.Matt Parkinson, the leg-spinning twin of Callum who is currently with Durham on loan from Lancashire but will play for Kent in 2024, took two for 91 on a pitch likely to favour the spinners increasingly over the last two days, and with a lead of 182 the Division Two leaders still hold the upper hand.Durham declared approximately half an hour before lunch, having added 95 to their overnight score.Graham Clark had looked nailed on for a second hundred in three innings only for his partner to run him out on 92, chancing a quick single off a dab into the off side only for Colin Ackermann to swoop at point and score a direct hit with his throw as Clark tried in vain to get home. The partnership had added 227 runs, and while Robinson initially threw back his head in disbelief at what he had done, he regained his composure to equal his previous best of 143 by driving Matt Salisbury to the cover boundary before he and Liam Trevaskis upped the tempo to blast 69 in nine overs before the wicket of Trevaskis, caught on the boundary as he swept Callum Parkinson, prompted the declaration.Parkinson’s two wickets cost 107 runs. Among the suffering seamers, Ed Barnes was the tidiest, going for what in the circumstances was a paltry three an over in his first Championship match since breaking a foot in the last week of April.The Durham seam attack, short on experience due to injuries and international call-ups, included the debutant Raymond Toole, a South African-born left-arm seamer who plays for Central Districts in New Zealand, signed in part for his experience bowling with the Kookaburra, although he has more recently seen action in the North East Premier League with Shotley Bridge – who use a Dukes ball. Yet Toole struggled to make an impression on this placid pitch, as Leicestershire openers Budinger and Rishi Patel progressed without alarm to lunch and beyond. Moments after Budinger completed his second fifty of the season, however, they were out to consecutive balls.Ben Raine, once of this parish, snared Patel, posting a short square leg to whom the batter obligingly popped up a simple catch off a miscued pull, after which Budinger, rocking back to cut the leg-spinning Parkinson, feathered the ball into the gloves of Robinson, who held it at the second attempt.It was still essentially a good pitch but there were signs now and again of deterioration. Parkinson picked up a second wicket when he drew Lewis Hill into reaching for one outside off stump that turned enough to find the edge, slip taking the catch.At 124 for three, Leicestershire’s initial target of reaching 368 to avoid the follow-on looked some way off. By tea, it was a little closer, at 203 for three after Ackermann had passed fifty for the fifth time this season.Peter Handscomb, who had the good fortune to benefit from one of Parkinson’s not infrequent no-balls when he edged to slip on three, reached the same milestone seven overs into the final session only to run out of luck moments later when his attempt to paddle-sweep Trevaskis’s left-arm spin ballooned gently off the top edge to give Robinson a simple catch behind the stumps.Ackermann’s 22nd career first-class hundred came inside the final three overs of play when he pulled Toole for his eighth boundary. Unfazed by a blow on the helmet from a short ball by Raine shortly afterwards, he and Wiaan Mulder (45) have so far added 94. Leicestershire still require another 33 to avoid being asked to follow on.
Day 1 Durham 442/4
Centuries from Ollie Robinson and Alex Lees put Division Two leaders Durham in a commanding position at 422 for four after the opening day of their LV= Insurance County Championship clash with third-placed Leicestershire.Robinson, who finished unbeaten on 113 posted the third century of what is turning into an outstanding season following his move from Kent last winter, sharing an unbroken 221-run fifth-wicket stand with Graham Clark, who is 15 away from a hundred of his own.Earlier, openers Alex Lees (101) and Michael Jones (78) had laid the foundations with a first-wicket stand of 145 before Leicestershire were able to make any inroads with the Kookaburra ball.Wicketkeeper Robinson, who was completing back-to-back centuries after his second-inning 102 against Glamorgan earlier this month, moved from fifty to 100 in just 40 balls as a tiring home bowling attack was made to suffer on a flat pitch.Despite last week’s revelation that they would be playing for different counties next season, former captains Callum Parkinson and Colin Ackermann and veteran fast bowler Chris Wright were all selected by Leicestershire, even though the first-named pair will be wearing Durham colours next year.Indeed, Parkinson and Ackermann wrote what will be a curious footnote to the day’s play by combining to dismiss Lees, simultaneously offering their new side evidence of their ability while striking an important blow for their current one.Having won the toss and invited Leicestershire’s bowlers to explore the Kookaburra experiment, Durham could only have been more satisfied with the opening session had Lees and Jones been still together at lunch.As it was, they shared Durham’s best opening partnership of this season – before Jones, already with 14 fours and a six to his name and looking on course for a second century of the campaign, mistimed a ball from Ed Barnes that he flicked tamely to short mid-wicket, where Ackermann took a good catch.The pitch had a reasonable covering of grass, particularly on a full length, yet with a short boundary to one side Lees and Jones flew out of the traps with such purpose that, at 66 without loss after eight overs, spectators might have had pause to wonder if they were watching T20 rather than a four-day game.To their credit, by lunch a home attack lacking the injured Josh Hull and teenage leg spinner Rehan Ahmed – on England duty – had managed to drag the rate back to a more respectable three runs per over, with Jones the only casualty as Durham lunched on 150 for one. Parkinson’s left-arm spin was summoned as early as the eighth over, although the pitch would never offer him much help.Having snared the wicket of Jones just before lunch, Leicestershire made a second breakthrough soon afterwards, seamer Tom Scriven finding the edge as Durham skipper Scott Borthwick prodded at one outside off stump.Indeed, the middle session was a better one for the home side, who began the round just a point behind second-placed Sussex.At tea, they had Durham 263 for four, still well placed but 113 for three in the session.Sussex-bound Wright, playing in his 50th first-class match for Leicestershire, took his 160th wicket in that time, reacting quickly to grab a return catch in his follow-through as David Bedingham’s defensive push popped up.And Parkinson, who had bowled eight overs without success in the morning, dismissed Lees towards the end of his second spell, the Durham left-hander ultimately reaching for a ball that turned just enough to find the edge, Ackermann taking the catch low down at slip.In energy-sapping conditions, the final session was hard work for the bowlers, Clark hitting Ackermann’s off-spin for three consecutive fours before a fourth took him to a 70-ball half-century, 24-year-old Robinson completing his from 103 deliveries just before the second new ball became available.Leicestershire took it but the change served only to increase the speed at which the ball flew off the bat, seven of the 11 boundaries in Robinson’s hundred coming in the space of eight overs with the new Kookaburra, the right-hander driving and cutting Barnes for back-to-back boundaries to reach the milestone.