Lancashire v Durham

REIGNING champions Durham will spend the last month of the season battling against relegation after a heart-stopping defeat at Old Trafford left them in next to bottom place.

In the most gripping of contests Lancashire’s last pair came together with 17 needed off five overs and scrambled home with two balls to spare.

Who needs Twenty20 cricket when a four-day match can produce drama like this?

A home win looked a formality when the original target was 107 in 36 overs, but John Hastings, Chris Rushworth and Ben Stokes had the Red Rose wilting on 90 for nine when Simon Kerrigan joined Tom Smith.

Stokes had just taken three for one in eight balls, but whereas last season Durham were able to get over the line in tight finishes this time they were denied as Kerrigan made 14.

He scrambled the winning run when a shy at the nonstriker’s end might have resulted in a tie had it hit the stumps. Smith was unbeaten on 35 after going in with his side rocking on 36 for five.

Kerrigan scrambled ones and twos and when 11 were needed off two overs he edged Hastings to the vacant third man boundary.

Three more came off the over and after bowling his heart out Hastings was left with four for 40 from 14 overs. It would be tough to reflect that ten early runs resulted from three no-balls and four overthrows.

The Australian kept going for 11 overs in his first spell, but the pressure eased once he and Rushworth rested until Stokes got going in his fifth over.

Smith and wicketkeeper Alex Davies played with calm assurance to put on 43 for the sixth wicket and only 28 were needed when Stokes came to the party.

He responded to being hit for four by Davies with a ferocious burst.

Davies was lbw for 23 and two balls later Stephen Parry’s stumps were splattered, as were Glen Chapple’s by a ball which barely left the ground.

In the intervening over Scott Borthwick bowled two long hops, which Smith put away, prompting the return of Hastings, who persuaded Tom Bailey to chip a catch to mid-off.

That brought in Kerrigan, who was clearly determined that his match haul of eight wickets would not be in vain.

It certainly didn’t look like being Durham’s day when Hastings bowled Luis Reece with his first no ball but the left-hander was caught behind off Rushworth with the score on five.

Then Phil Mustard dived to his left to hold an excellent catch when Hastings produced a beauty to remove Usman Khawaja.

Paul Horton pushed forward and was lbw to Rushworth before Steven Croft looked aghast to be given out caught at second slip off Hastings, indicating the ball had hit his arm.

There could be no argument with the lbw decision when Ashwell Prince walked into a straight one from Hastings.

That was when Smith walked in to supervise the recovery.

Despite an unbeaten 45 from skipper Paul Collingwood, Durham were all out for 187 after resuming on 59 for one.

They lost five wickets in the morning and when they needed a lengthy period of resistance after lunch Calum MacLeod was run out for one.

The Scot called for a run to cover and collided with the bowler, Kerrigan. Whether he would otherwise have beaten Bailey’s direct hit, or whether there was any intent on Kerrigan’s part, is impossible to say.

When he should have been rushing to get behind the stumps to field the throw the bowler was slow to move.

When he did he backed up and MacLeod veered into him.

The likeliest explanation was that in trying to avoid each other they took a collision course.

Kerrigan certainly had a big impact on the game, taking four wickets in each innings.

All but one of his victims were left-handers, of whom Durham have five in the top seven.

Given that conditions were in his favour he did no more than would have been expected and with a specific worn area to aim at it could be argued he didn’t hit it as often as a genuine Test prospect should have done.

Confirmation that it wasn’t just the turn out of the footmarks that Durham had to worry about came in the day’s second over when a Kerrigan shooter barely left the deck and defeated wicketkeeper Davies in going for four byes.

Keaton Jennings played back and was lbw to Kerrigan for 20 and Borthwick made the same score before being adjudged lbw to Chapple.

The Lancashire skipper was bowling round the wicket and the batsman had his pad outside the line of off stump.

Things were just not going Durham’s way as Stokes turned Kerrigan off the middle of the bat to Croft, who held a reflex catch at forward short leg.

Ryan Buckley, who had been absent ill for a day and a half, dug in for nine overs to make nine before edging Lancashire’s third spinner, Croft, to slip.

Rushworth survived the last ball of the over and Collingwood managed to farm the strike for the next two overs, adding nine runs.

But when Rushworth had to face again he recklessly played across the line and was bowled by Bailey.

A few more runs would have been very precious.

Scoreboard

Lancashire v Durham
At Emirates Old Trafford.
Overnight: Lancashire 421 (P J Horton
114, A G Prince 106; J W Hastings4-78).
Durham 340 (C S MacLeod 84, J
W Hastings 83; T C Smith 5-45, S
CKerrigan 4-86) and 59-1.
Durham Second Innings
K K Jennings lbw b Kerrigan................20
S G Borthwick lbw b Chapple ............20
M J Richardson lbw b Kerrigan ........... 15
B A Stokes c Croft b Kerrigan............... 2
P D Collingwood not out ......................45
P Mustard b Parry Horton .................... 12
C S MacLeod run out.............................. 1
J W Hastings c Davies b Chapple...... 16
R S Buckley c Horton b Croft ............... 9
C Rushworth b Bailey ............................. 0
Extras (b6 lb3 nb4 pens 5) 18
Total (77.1 overs)................187
Fall: 1-41 2-73 3-92 4-98 5-103 6-126
7-139 8-161 9-178
Did Not Bat: P Couglin.
Bowling: Chapple 15-2-33-2. Bailey 5.1-
1-25-1. Kerrigan 33-6-61-4. Parry 8-0-25-
1. Croft 4-2-6-1. Smith 12-4-23-0.
Lancashire Second Innings
P J Horton lbw b Rushworth.................. 3
L M Reece c Mustard b Rushworth ..... 1
U T Khawaja c Mustard b Hastings.... 10
A G Prince lbw b Hastings..................... 6
S J Croft c Borthwick b Hastings ......... 6
A L Davies lbw b Stokes .......................23
T C Smith not out ...................................35
S D Parry b Stokes................................... 0
G Chapple b Stokes................................ 1
S Kerrigan c Stoneman b Hastings...... 0
T E Bailey not out ................................... 14
Extras (lb2 nb6 pens 0)........ 8
Total 9 wkts (35.4 overs)..107
Fall: 1-5 2-20 3-22 4-31 5-36 6-79 7-79
8-89 9-90
Bowling: Rushworth 9-3-21-2. Hastings
14-3-40-4. Stokes 8.4-2-25-3. Borthwick
4-0-19-0.
Lancashire (22pts) beat Durham (5pts) by 1 wkt