Chapple’s futile gamble ends Durham’s hopes

Given what was happening at Trent Bridge, it would have made sense to try to contrive a result at Taunton, but Durham coach Geoff Cook said: “There was a brief chat before we went out and Somerset’s vision of what was possible was a lot different from ours.”

After some declaration bowling in the morning at Trent Bridge, he left the leaders two sessions to score 260 and they cruised home with three wickets in hand.

What had promised to be an exciting end to the season has almost certainly been ruined unless Durham beat Nottinghamshire at home next week.

Even that would not revive their own chances as they are now 60 points adrift with three games left, with a maximum of 22 points a game available.

Durham’s two-and-a-half day wait to resume their match at Taunton resulted merely in their bowlers again being treated as cannon fodder yesterday before Somerset declared on 400 for six.

When play began in sunny, blustery conditions at 2pm Mark Davies again bowled a lengthy spell in search of his first wicket of the season but remained out of luck, highlighted by two successive balls to Craig Kieswetter.

The first was driven into the covers, where Scott Borthwick made a brilliant stop, only to shy at the non-striker’s end and concede four overthrows.

That took the batsman to 49 and he was beaten by the next delivery before completing a 73-ball half-century.

To rub salt into Davies’ wounds, when he finally made way for Borthwick the legspinner had Kieswetter lbw with his first ball for 75 to earn Durham’s second bowling point.

Durham’s first success came when 71 runs had been added in just over an hour, Zander de Bruyn pulling Liam Plunkett to Borthwick at deep mid-wicket to fall for 54.

Peter Trego got off the mark with an upper cut for six off Plunkett and Ben Phillips helped him bring up the 400.

Durham began their innings at 3.55 in pleasant sunshine, which was at least some reward for around 30 diehard supporters who had booked a four-day trip to Somerset.

The hosts immediately posted a deep mid-wicket and Michael Di Venuto almost holed out second ball, but the efforts of Charl Willoughby and Phillips confirmed that Somerset still don’t have enough firepower to be serious title contenders.

They turned to the left-arm spin of Murali Kartik after 11 overs and he posed a few problems for Mark Stoneman before Durham declared on 37 without loss at the earliest possible opportunity at 4.50.

Di Venuto reached 1,000 firstclass runs for the season by making 22 not out.

■ Durham continue their CB 40 programme at home to Scotland tomorrow, with Mark Davies and Scott Borthwick added to the squad which beat group leaders Warwickshire last week. The match starts at 1.45, but the following day’s match at Trent Bridge in the same competition begins at 12.45.

Scoreboard

Somerset v Durham At Taunton

Overnight: Somerset 287-4 (M E Trescothick 128, A V Suppiah 54).

Somerset First Innings

Z de Bruyn c Borthwick b Plunkett ......54

C Kieswetter lbw b Borthwick ..............

P D Trego not out ................................18

B J Phillips not out .................................8

Extras (lb7 nb4 pens 0) .........11

Total 6 wkts dec (104.4 overs)400

Fall: 1-119 2-232 3-235 4-249 5-358 6-

Did Not Bat: A C Thomas, M Kartik, C M Willoughby.

Total Bonus Pts: Somerset 5 Durham 2

Bowling: Davies 27-5-85-0. Claydon 20- 3-86-1. Plunkett 16-2-64-1. Stokes 3-1-24- 0. Blackwell 28-7-79-1. Benkenstein 3-0- 17-2. Borthwick 7.4-0-38-1.

Durham First Innings

M J Di Venuto not out ..........................10

M D Stoneman not out ........................22

Extras (b4 lb1 pens 0) .................5

Total 0 wkts (15 overs)..................37

Did Not Bat: G J Muchall, D M Benkenstein, I D Blackwell, B A Stokes, P Mustard, S G Borthwick, L E Plunkett, M E Claydon, M Davies.Total Bonus Pts: Somerset 5 Durham 2

Willoughby 8-1-26-0. Phillips 4-3-2-0. Kartik 3-0-4-0.

Somerset (8pts) drew with Durham (5pts).