Durham aiming to punish Essex attack (From The Northern Echo)

Durham aiming to punish Essex attack

10:58am Wednesday 8th September 2010 in

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FOR the battle of two threadbare attacks at Chelmsford it was Durham who felt the need to add an emergency late registration to their squad. But it should be Essex who are put to the sword today.

They reached 248 for nine on a rain-interrupted first day and the Durham batsmen will be licking their lips at the prospect of facing a four-man attack which includes two championship debutants.

With six seamers injured, plus Ben Stokes, Durham rushed through the registration of West Indian paceman Ruel Braithwaite in case Liam Plunkett failed his fitness test.

As it happened, Plunkett was fit so Braithwaite had to settle for bowling on a practice strip with bowling coach Alan Walker at lunchtime.

The 25-year-old Barbadian has been a student at Loughborough and Cambridge and has played second X1 cricket for Surrey, Leicestershire and Durham.

He had the remarkable figures of eight for four for Blackheath this summer, but the fact that he has been appearing in the Kent League three years after playing for the West Indies in a one-day match against England Lions does not suggest that he has kicked on.

While four batsmen surrendered in a team resigned to relegation, Durham again suffered at the hands of their tormentors in the opening match at Riverside, James Foster and the previously unheralded Jaik Mickleburgh.

Foster has been in poor form since that stand of 339, but hit the erratic Mitch Claydon for five fours in two overs in reaching 42 before Plunkett had him lbw with the new ball.

Mickleburgh, the 20-yearold batsman from Norfolk who amassed 174 at Chesterle- Street in April, made 72 this time.

Essex chose to bat in cloudy conditions and lost Billy Godleman, lbw to Claydon, in progressing to 53 for one in the 15th over before rain arrived.

Alastair Cook had looked impressive in reaching 33, but on the resumption in bright sunshine after lunch he pulled a short ball in Plunkett’s first over into Claydon’s hands at square leg.

Left-hander Matt Walker then contributed 32 to a stand of 74 with Mickleburgh before Ian Blackwell had him caught off bat and pad by Mark Stoneman.

Essex appear to have done Mickleburgh few favours by moving him up to open for much of the season and he was virtually in that position yesterday, going in at 11 for one.

He survived a big early appeal for a leg-side catch by Phil Mustard, but looked just as composed as in his careerbest knock at Riverside.

The only real scare for Mickleburgh came on 59 when he edged the sparingly-used Ben Harmison low to Mustard’s right.

He had driven Blackwell for a straight six, but when he tried to hammer Scott Borthwick over the top he drove straight into the hands of Dale Benkenstein at mid-off.

That gave Borthwick a second wicket as Mark Pettini pulled a long hop straight to Plunkett at mid-wicket.

Believing they are already down, Essex handed championship debuts to two local lads in Michael Comber, an all-rounder, and Max Osborne.

Both bowl medium pace and will support Chris Wright and Tony Palladino in an attack lacking David Masters, Maurice Chambers, Ryan ten Doeschate and Danish Kaneria.

Kaneria apparently has a twinge and is also due in court shortly on the spot fixing charge which arose from the 40-over league match at Riverside at the end of last season.

Masters, who has 53 championship wickets, has been rested in view of Essex having a CB 40 League semi-final at Taunton on Saturday.

Considering his success in last week’s win against Nottinghamshire, it was surprising that Ben Harmison bowled only one over before tea.

At that point Chris Rushworth had sent down 17 overs without reward, while Claydon had conceded 38 in eight overs when the overall run rate was below three.

Harmison bowled a good spell after tea, and after Mustard got his fingertips to an edge from Mickleburgh something similar from Tom Westley almost carried to Michael Di Venuto. But after another brief stoppage for rain Harmison was replaced by Claydon, who proceeded to hand Foster easy runs.

Westley ran himself out by cutting straight to Rushworth at backward point and advancing halfway down the pitch, then Rushworth picked up his deserved wicket by bowling Palladino with the new ball.

SCORECARD

Essex v Durham
At Chelmsford. Essex Won Toss
Essex First Innings Close
B A Godleman lbw b Claydon 9
A N Cook c Claydon b Plunkett 33
J C Mickleburgh c Benkenstein
b Borthwick 72
M J Walker c Stoneman b Blackwell 32
M L Pettini c Plunkett b Borthwick 10
T Westley run out 16
J S Foster lbw b Plunkett 42
M A Comber b Blackwell 0
A P Palladino b Rushworth 10
C J Wright not out 14
M Osborne not out 0
Extras (b1 lb2 w1 nb6 pens 0) 10
Total 9 wkts (89 overs) 248
Fall: 1-11 2-53 3-127 4-151 5-174 6-197 7-
213 8-234 9-236
Rushworth 20-8-56-1. Claydon 12-1-60-1. B
W Harmison 8-2-20-0. Blackwell 16-3-30-2.
Plunkett 12-4-27-2. Benkenstein 7-4-11-0.
Borthwick 14-5-41-2.