Durham 245; Sussex 60-3 Durham have played 18 championship games under the captaincy of Paul Collingwood and won 11 of them. On a pitch that gave the bowlers encouragement all day they are in a strong position to make it 12 out of 19, and in so doing go to the top of the County Championship
Durham 245; Sussex 60-3
Durham have played 18 championship games under the captaincy of Paul Collingwood and won 11 of them. On a pitch that gave the bowlers encouragement all day they are in a strong position to make it 12 out of 19, and in so doing go to the top of the County Championship.
If they do go on to win the title it will be an outstanding achievement, because rarely can a team have been so much greater than the sum of its parts. Graham Onions and Ben Stokes aside – and Stokes is away with England – there are no obvious match-winners, but time and again Collingwood has got the best out of his unsung squad.
On this occasion it was Mark Stoneman who obliged, following his century in last week’s outstanding victory over the leaders Yorkshire, by hitting 96 off 129 balls. While disappointed not to go on to three figures, in the context of a day on which the next highest individual score was 32, it was a hugely important innings.
“It’s a good cricket wicket, one on which there’s always something happening,” said the Newcastle-born opener. “We’d have liked to get 260 or 270, which is about par for the first innings here, but we’ve definitely got a competitive score. Colly doesn’t say too much but you pay attention when he talks. I think he’s assessed our strengths and he’s got us playing to them, to a plan. It’s simple but effective.”
Stoneman received good support from Will Smith and then from Michael Richardson but every batsman found it hard-going as the ball swung around in the humid conditions. Steve Magoffin bowled quite beautifully for Sussex, combining relentless accuracy with movement through the air and occasionally off the seam in an opening spell of 10 overs that deserved greater reward than a return of one for 15.
James Anyon and Lewis Hatchett also swung the ball but, although they picked up wickets, both also gave the batsmen deliveries to put away, and Stoneman was in good enough form to do exactly that, hitting 16 boundaries before being bowled off the inside edge by Hatchett.
The left-armer went on to trap Collingwood leg before with a delivery that swung back in to the right-hander, and Phil Mustard with a ball that bounced and swung to take a thick edge, in a spell of three for five in 20 balls.
Richardson and Usman Arshad then put together a stand of 54 for the seventh wicket before the former went lbw on the back foot to Anyon, while Magoffin picked up the wickets fortune had denied him earlier.
When Sussex replied, Onions, having been perhaps unwisely subjected to a series of short balls from Anyon, gained an early revenge by picking up the wickets of Chris Nash and Michael Yardy in three balls.
Mitch Claydon, recalled from his loan to Kent until he makes a permanent move to Canterbury at the end of the season, then bowled Joe Gatting with his second ball to leave Durham nicely placed.
