On another wicket-laden day at Chester-le-Street Nottinghamshire kept their hopes of picking up an important LV= County Championship victory alive with another outstanding performance by the bowlers.
Thirteen wickets fell during the day, as Notts were first bowled out for 188, before reducing Durham to 196-7 at stumps, a lead of 261. Gary Keedy, on his county debut, returned figures of 4-56 to maintain the visitors’ hopes of success after they had surrendered a first innings deficit of 65. Mick Newell, Nottinghamshire's director of cricket, admits the bowlers have been on top of the match so far.
“The pitch, it’s difficult to get in on," he said.
"There have been lots of 20s, 30s and 40s, with just a couple of half centuries, so far. It’s a relatively low-scoring game, which are often the most exciting.”
Looking ahead to the third day, Newell knows his side have to claim the final 3 Durham wickets quickly – and then go to work with the bat.
“Whatever we have to chase, it will be tough,” he said.
“But we are trying to win the match and we are trying to stay in contention to win the Championship. That will be the challenge for us tomorrow.”
On Keedy, he said: “He kept it tight in the first innings and we were looking for him to make a contribution, so I’m really pleased for him and hope it proves to be a winning one.”
Notts had begun the day on 66-4, still 187 runs adrift of the home side’s first innings total of 253. James Franklin, on his county debut, began his innings at the start of the day, alongside Riki Wessels, who was unbeaten overnight on 17. All went well for the opening 35 minutes with Wessels, in particular, playing fluently.
Two exquisite cover drives off John Hastings flew to the cover fence and then a pull from Rushworth also battered the boards. He’d moved to 37 before Rushworth extracted some revenge, getting the batsman to punch to Callum MacLeod at gully.
Franklin (24) batted for almost 90 minutes before being tempted to drive during Paul Collingwood’s opening over and the ball flew off an outside edge to Scott Borthwick at second slip. Chris Read (21), averaging 55 from 11 innings away from Trent Bridge this season, perished on the stroke of lunch, giving Hastings his 150th first class wicket by pulling to Paul Coughlin in the deep.
Ajmal Shahzad and Luke Fletcher, who added 100 together in the last match against Northants, only made 11 this time. Fletcher (9) steered Collingwood into the hands of Borthwick and then the same bowler removed Jake Ball (12), caught behind. Keedy played a non-scoring supporting role as 18 were added by Shahzad in a last wicket stand.
Playing his shots, Shahzad should have fallen for 16 but a hook down to fine leg was parried over the ropes for 6 by Peter Chase, when catching it appeared the simpler option. The end came, predictably, to a short ball which Shahzad (30) stepped away from to try and lift up and over the ‘keeper but could only manage, instead, to balloon it high into the air for Hastings to take the return.
Hastings recorded figures of 4-64, whilst Collingwood’s 3-26 were his best return in the Championsip for 6 years. Mark Stoneman and Keaton Jennings (23) had put 28 on in the first innings and were past that inside 6 overs as Durham began again, with 54 overs to be played in the day. Shahzad went for 18 from his opening 2 overs and was replaced by Ball but the scoring rate couldn’t be slowed and the 50 was reached in just 10.2 overs.
Keedy was introduced into the attack at the start of the 12th over and with his first ball he had Stoneman (26) caught behind by Read. The success was welcome after he’d toiled away without any reward in the Durham first innings and the 39-year old then removed the other opener in his third over, the bat-pad offering lobbing up gently into the ‘keeper’s gloves.
Luke Wood, on as a fielding substitute got himself in on the act, as he chased down a drive and kept it from crossing the boundary. Scott Borthwick had slipped over, having completed two runs, with Michael Richardson (3) obviously unaware and going for a third.
Wood’s return found the hands of bowler James Franklin, who had the presence of mind and undoubtedly a clear call, to throw down to Read’s end to execute the run out. Having seen Keedy break his duck with a maiden wicket for Notts, Franklin then did the same, as MacLeod (3) chopped on.
To bring an extraordinary session to a slightly premature close Keedy then bowled Borthwick (19) with the first ball of the final over before tea, leaving Durham on 83-5, a lead of 148 – but with all 5 wickets having fallen for the addition of only 32 runs in exactly 10 overs.
Paul Collingwood and Gordon Muchall (36) steadied the ship with a 6th wicket stand of 50, which was broken by a superb delivery from Jake Ball, which just did enough to nip back and crash into Muchall’s stumps.
One wicket often brings two and it was the case again as Hastings (0) became Keedy’s fourth victim, trapped lbw. Paul Coughlin (36 not out) batted through the final hour of the day with Collingwood (38 not out) and the lead had stretched beyond 250 by the time the umpires called off play two overs early, due to bad light.