Bedingham and Ackermann centuries take Durham into big lead
David Bedingham made his third Championship century of the season against Lancashire and also passed a thousand first-class runs for this campaign to help Durham take control of their Vitality County Championship match at Chester-le-Street.
Having restricted Lancashire to 228 all out in their first innings, the home side were 367 for four at the close, a lead of 139, with Bedingham on 177 not out and Colin Ackermann unbeaten on 111. The pair’s unbroken stand of 268 has already set a new fifth-wicket record for Durham in first-class cricket.
The one positive aspect of the day’s play from a Lancastrian perspective was the bowling of the Trinidadian, Anderson Philip, who took two for 86 on his debut, but it now looks as though the visitors will face a battle to avoid a third Championship defeat in succession.
In the morning session, Lancashire’s last four wickets added a further 51 runs to their overnight total. Matty Hurst was run out for 90 after a mix-up with Tom Bailey and Ben Raine took his fifth wicket of the innings when he had Anderson Phillip, the Lancashire debutant, leg before wicket for two.
Raine finished with five for 44, his best return of the season, but crucially for their hopes of staying in Division One, Lancashire failed to earn a batting bonus point for the third successive match.
Replying to the visitors’ 228, Durham’s batters encountered their own problems against the new Kookaburra ball. Ben McKinney gave Phillip his first wicket for his new county when he played on for eight and Scott Borthwick’s indeterminate waft at a ball from Bailey edged a catch to Hurst with the home skipper on nine.
Bedingham and Alex Lees took Durham to lunch on 46 for two and the pair batted serenely for nearly an hour after the resumption, at which point the home side were rocked by two lbw decisions in eight balls.
Lees fell to Phillip for 43 and then Ollie Robinson was trapped on the crease by Tom Aspinwall for four to leave Durham on 99 for four. Bedingham and Ackermann prevented Lancashire making any more breakthroughs and Durham reached tea on 178 for four, only 50 runs in arrears.
Shortly after the resumption, Bedingham reached his thousand first-class runs for the season with a single off Tom Hartley and it was noted that nearly a quarter of them had been taken off the Red Rose’s attack.
But worse was to follow for Keaton Jennings’ bowlers as Bedingham reached his sixth Championship century in just 15 innings this season when he stroked Hartley to long-on for another single. The South African had reached three figures off 143 balls with 11 fours and a six and there had hardly been a moment in his innings when he hadn’t looked in complete control.
The fifth-wicket stand partnership passed 200 when Bedingham pulled a lifter from Aspinwall through midwicket for four.
While almost all other Championship games in the country were interrupted by rain, home supporters sat in the sun and waited to see if Ackermann would reach his century and if the Durham pair would eclipse the county’s record fifth-wicket partnership of 254 set by Ned Eckersley and Bedingham himself against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in 2021.
They were not disappointed. Three overs from the close, Ackermann got to his hundred off 165 balls and a new fifth-wicket record was set when Bedingham stroked Bailey to deep square leg off the next delivery.
Photos: Dan Adams
