MATCH REPORT: Bedingham continues to frustrate Lancashire on day three in Durham
Durham maintained their control of their Vitality County Championship match against Lancashire on a day when David Bedingham became the highest individual scorer in the county’s first-class history.
Bedingham’s 279 surpassed Martin Love’s 273 against Hampshire in 2003 and his innings was the bedrock of his team’s 573 for nine declared. Facing a deficit of 345, Lancashire ended the day on 155 for four with Matthew Potts having taken three of the wickets. Keaton Jennings’ side therefore need another 190 runs to avoid their fourth innings defeat of the season.
And it was a day when other records tumbled at the Riverside. Bedingham and Colin Ackermann’s 424-run fifth-wicket partnership set a new record for any wicket in Durham’s first-class history, easily eclipsing the 334 put on by Stewart Hutton and Michael Roseberry against Oxford University in The Parks in 1996.
It is also the eighth-highest fifth-wicket stand in the history of first-class cricket and the second highest first-class partnership for any wicket against Lancashire.
The mammoth stand was eventually broken by the leg-spinner, Luke Wells, who had Ackermann leg before wicket for 186 in the fourth over after lunch. Wells then enjoyed more success when he had Ben Raine caught at backward point by George Bell for 17 and Bas de Leede stumped by Matty Hurst for four.
Tom Hartley took his only wicket of the innings when he had Potts leg before wicket for four and the declaration was applied when Bedingham was caught at long-on by Anderson Phillip off Wells. He had batted 489 minutes, faced 359 balls and hit 27 fours and a six.
Wells finished with respectable figures of four for 69 but was soon out in the middle again when he opened Lancashire’s second innings with Jennings. However, their alliance lasted only nine balls before the Lancashire skipper was caught at second slip by Ackermann off Potts for nought.
Josh Bohannon joined Wells and guided Lancashire to 49 for one at tea but the visitors lost two wickets in five balls immediately after the resumption. Wells was bowled by Callum Parkinson when attempting to reverse sweep the slow left-armer and George Bell was caught behind by Ollie Robinson off Potts for a two-ball nought.
Bohannon and Hurst then added 73 for the fourth wicket in increasingly untroubled fashion before Bohannon groped at a ball from Potts without moving his feet and was caught at first slip by Scott Borthwick. Hurst ended the day on 43 not out and he and George Balderson ensured no more wickets fell before close of play.
However, Lancashire have so far earned just one point from this match and their relegation fears will not have been eased by this third day’s play. By contrast, Durham have eight points with plenty of power to add more tomorrow.