Northamptonshire v Durham: LV= County Championship (Day One)

DURHAM’S two South Africans have evidently wintered well and were glad to have the sun on their backs as they laid a firm platform at Northampton yesterday.

Keaton Jennings and Michael Richardson took up where they left off in scoring centuries in the second innings of the final match at Hove last September as they came together at 40 for two and put on 82.

Jennings made a solid 55 and Richardson a cultured 80, while Phil Mustard remained unbeaten on 63 as the champions completed the first day of their title defence on 265 for five.

The two sons of former South Africa wicketkeepers can both be seen as potential future captains as Durham look for a successor to Paul Collingwood, who began his final season by winning a useful toss in good batting conditions.

Mark Stoneman is in pole position to take over but he made only two before shouldering arms to a ball from Muhammad Azharullah which trimmed his bails.

Azharullah came from Pakistan to play Bradford League cricket and married the female scorer at Pudsey Congs, where the father of Northants’ James Middlebrook is on the committee.

That provided the link which gave him an entry into county cricket, but while he impressed in his first season at Wantage Road last year his greatest success was in helping Northants become Twenty20 champions.

Following promotion in the main event, they wanted the Australian Jackson Bird to spearhead their attack but he was ruled out by a back problem and without him and David Willey, who is playing purely as a batsman, their bowling looks short of division one class.

Of the other six bowlers they tried, five are cast-offs from other counties and veteran South African allrounder Andrew Hall gave his best years to Kent.

Durham will need their own bowlers to find more penetration on a placid pitch if they are to capitalise on the first day’s graft. It was necessary to knuckle down after the early loss of last season’s two 1,000-run men, Stoneman and Scott Borthwick.

Had either of those prospered, Durham might have posted well in excess of 300, but with Gareth Breese required to bat at No 7 the lineup does not look as strong as in recent seasons.

Breese is playing because there are doubts about whether Borthwick is fit to bowl because of stiffness in his side. The 38-year-old Jamaican has played hardly any championship cricket for five years and is now on a one-day contract, so he’s earning bonus money here.

Borthwick opened up confidently, hitting Azharullah for two lovely fours off the front foot through the off side. But he fell for 20 when Hall went round the wicket and skidded one through to pin him lbw.

Otherwise there were few alarms other than when Jennings top-edged a pull just over gully, but the bowling was disciplined enough for the South Africans to be vigilant.

They scored at two an over until the 39th, when Richardson pulled Hall for six and the runs began to flow.

Jennings cut and off-drove two successive balls from Azharullah to the boundary in the next over then his partner pulled Hall for two more fours.

A quick single took Jennings to 50 off 133 balls but after a fierce cut off Maurice Chambers took his boundary tally to eight he shaped to force the next one away off the back foot and edged to first slip.

Richardson played extremely well in reaching 50 off 114 balls with nine fours and a six, but became a little flustered as several well-timed shots off Middlebrook failed to pierce the field.

After going down the pitch to loft the off-spinner to longon for four, he tried a contrasting approach, sitting back to cut, only to chop the ball into his stumps.

Mustard took to his new role at No 5 in encouraging fashion, accumulating without risk after an early cut flew at head height just wide of point.

Collingwood was a victim of the new ball, falling for four when he pushed forward and edged Chambers to second slip.

Breese also began shakily, but his edges brought him runs rather than going to hand before he began to prosper and he was still there on 28 at the close of a satisfactory day.

SCORECARD

At Northampton. Durham Won Toss

Durham First Innings Close
M D Stoneman b Azharullah .............. 2
K K Jennings c Hall b Chambers .........54
S G Borthwick lbw b Hall ....................20
M J Richardson c Murphy b Middlebrook ...... 80
P Mustard not out ............................63
P D Collingwood c Spriegel b Chambers ....... ..4
G R Breese not out ...........................28
Extras (lb9 w1 nb4 pens 0).....14
Total 5 wkts (96 overs) .........265
Fall: 1-3 2-40 3-122 4-217 5-223
To Bat: Usman Arshad, G Onions, J Harrison,
C Rushworth.
Bowling: Chambers 20-7-52-2. Azharullah
20-3-69-1. Hall 15-7-40-1. Crook 19-3-48-
0. Middlebrook 18-5-35-1. K J Coetzer 2-
0-10-0. Spriegel 2-1-2-0.