MATCH PREVIEW: Durham v Lancashire, Vitality County Championship
Following back-to-back defeats against champions and leaders Surrey at the Kia Oval and Hampshire at Emirates Old Trafford, Lancashire travel to the North East 10 points from safety.
Durham v Lancashire
Vitality County Championship, Division One
Monday September 9 - Thursday September 12, 2024, 10.30am
Seat Unique Riverside
Sat second bottom with three rounds remaining, that’s the gap between themselves and eighth-placed Nottinghamshire, who are away themselves this week against Essex at Chelmsford.
Durham are seventh on 130 points, 24 ahead of Dale Benkenstein, Keaton Jennings and company.
Completing the double over them - Lancashire beat them at Blackpool earlier in the campaign - would heighten their nerves heading into the final fortnight.
Durham were beaten by Somerset at Taunton last week.
Opposition
Durham are coming to the end of their first season back in Division One having come up as champions last season.
Captained by Alex Lees, they have won three of their 13 matches to leave themselves within striking distance of safety.
They have beaten Worcestershire away and Somerset and Nottinghamshire at the Riverside.
Just as Lancashire come into this match on the back of a quarter-final defeat against Sussex at Hove last week in the Vitality Blast, Durham were beaten at Surrey.
Coached by Australian Ryan Campbell, formerly in charge of the Dutch national side, Durham have batter David Bedingham back from South African duty to resume his overseas duties.
He is their leading Championship run-scorer this term with 926 from just eight matches, including five hundreds. No batter in Division One has more.
It would be no surprise to see Australian batter Ashton Turner feature. He has been with Durham for this season’s Blast but has played the last two Championship matches. With Durham having been knocked out of the Blast, it’s unclear whether he will play or return home.
Former Lancashire seamer Neil Wagner, Durham’s overseas player, has returned to New Zealand early having dislocated his shoulder.
Experienced seamer Ben Raine is their leading wicket-taker with 27.
Opposition player to watch
Mancunian-born but Durham educated seamer Daniel Hogg has taken 10 wickets in his first two Championship matches having come through the ranks at the Riverside.
That haul includes a second-innings 7-66 in last month’s home win over Nottinghamshire.
The tall 19-year-old has played for Durham since Under 14s and made his England Under 19s debut last August and played four matches against Ireland and Australia, taking four wickets.
Hogg’s seven-wicket haul against Notts (August 22-25) was actually only his second recorded career five-for.
The right-armer’s first had come just three weeks earlier whilst playing for Burnopfield against Newcastle in the North East Premier League (5-36).
Previous meeting
Keaton Jennings scored twin centuries as Lancashire beat Durham in an enthralling Vitality County Championship match at Blackpool in mid-May, one which featured England Test captain Ben Stokes.
Jennings posted 115 and 155 in a 60-run success which saw Durham threaten a target of 475 on the final day before falling short at 414 all out, with George Balderson striking four times.
This was a high-scoring game which also saw Durham’s South African overseas batter David Bedingham score two centuries - 101 and 103.
Lancashire batted first, posting 357 all out in the opening stages of the second day. Jennings underpinned things with 115 against his former county.
It was hugely positive that the Red Rose were batting again come the end of day two having bowled Durham out for 236 in their first-innings reply, despite Bedingham’s 101.
Tom Aspinwall’s brilliant 5-41 - his maiden career five-for - was backed up by four wickets for Nathan Lyon.
Captain Jennings then continued his memorable game with 155, once again underpinning 353-9 declared. He was Lancashire’s only batter to pass 50 in the match.
Stokes claimed five wickets in the second innings. Incidentally, with the bat, he was out to the spin of Lyon and Luke Wells for scores of two and 18.
Durham batted through the final session of day three to begin their pursuit of 475, reaching close at 134-3.
Bedingham and wicketkeeper-batter Ollie Robinson had started their fourth-wicket partnership of 216 and batted through unbroken until the early stages of the afternoon.
But when Australian legend Lyon had Bedingham caught behind by Matty Hurst, leaving the score at 313-4 in the early stages of the afternoon, it was the beginning of the end for the visitors.
Robinson finished 171 not out, but he couldn’t find another partner as Balderson’s seam accounted for four of the last five wickets to fall as Durham were bowled out for 414.
It was Lancashire’s first win in this season’s Championship at the sixth attempt.
What they said
Keaton Jennings has sent out a rallying cry to his Lancashire players ahead of their trip to Durham.
The Red Rose face their captain’s former county in the first of three remaining Championship games which will decide their immediate future in four-day cricket.
Following Durham is a return to Emirates Old Trafford to face a Somerset side who still harbour title aspirations (September 17-20) before a season-ending trip to face Worcestershire at New Road (September 26-29).
Like Durham, Worcestershire were also promoted to Division One for this season and currently sit fifth.
Heading back to the Riverside, Jennings would love a repeat of May at Blackpool.
He previewed this Championship match before leaving Hove on Wednesday, where his side were beaten in the Vitality Blast quarter-final by Sussex.
The opening batter said: “We’ve got a massive run-in coming up now.
“The guys have to be fit and healthy and energised to go at it. We have to make sure that we’re at the races.
“It’s not about excuses or looking at this game (Sussex quarter-final) or what has been over the last four, five or six months.
“This is crunch time now, and we need to make sure we’re good.”
How’s Stat!
Lancashire and Durham have not played a Championship match at Seat Unique Riverside since May 2016.
The hosts won on that occasion, but the Red Rose did win a Bob Willis Trophy clash at the Chester-le-Street venue in August 2020. The Red Rose won by an innings and 18 runs.
Josh Bohannon scored a first-innings 75 and Liam Hurt claimed four wickets in the second innings.