MATCH REPORT: Gay century leads Durham towards big total
Today's report brought to you by C&C Insurance
A stylish century by Emilio Gay led an excellent Durham batting effort on the opening day of this final Rothesay County Championship match of the season with the visitors reaching 355-5 at the close.
Gay compiled his fourth century in ten Championship innings during the present campaign and shared two century partnerships of 114 with Ben McKinney for the second and 168 with Mayank Agarwal for the third.
Tom Bailey and Noman Ali both took two wickets on a tough day for the Red Rose attack who persevered throughout to claim three wickets in the final session.
Lancashire made two changes from last week’s match against Kent, resting James Anderson and Arav Shetty with Noman Ali and Ben Walkden returning to the side.
After Durham won the toss, it was Bailey who made an early breakthrough, finding an edge off Alex Lees to wicketkeeper Matty Hurst to dismiss the Durham skipper for 3.
Once Gay and Ben McKinney had negotiated good opening spells from Bailey and Mitch Stanley, the pair began to play a more expansive game with McKinney, in particular, looking to play his shots.
McKinney had a couple of close calls, dropped on 25 and 49 although neither were easy; the first was hammered back fiercely to the bowler Noman Ali who got a right hand to the ball but it didn’t ‘stick’, while for the latter Walkden got a hand to a diving catch at midwicket with a similar outcome.
Those hiccups apart, McKinney hit nine fours in reaching his fifty from 74 balls and added three more boundaries to his tally before edging behind off Bailey soon after lunch for 71.
Gay, meanwhile, produced a series of elegant drives, stroking 7 fours on his way to a 69-ball fifty, while building another fruitful partnership with Agarwal through the afternoon and evening.
The England opening bat fully demonstrated the good form that gained his selection with an untroubled passage to reach his 14th first-class century from 156 balls (14 fours) while India international Agarwal began by hitting Stanley for four and six on his way to a half century off 101 balls just before tea with the visitors in command on 247-2.
The pair continued in similar vein after the break, with Lancashire not helping their cause by grassing two more chances, Gay dropped on 135 and Agarwal on 58.
But Gay, who made an unbeaten 159 against Lancashire back in April, failed to match that effort when steering a Walkden delivery into the hands of Marcus Harris at wide slip to depart for a fine 141.
That was the start of three wickets falling for 14 runs, as left arm spinner Noman struck twice in eight balls, having Colin Ackermann nicely caught by Hurst for 6 while Agarwal, having made an attractive 66, skied a catch to Josh Bohannon at cover when slicing an attempted drive.
Ollie Robinson (34 not out) and Kasey Aldridge (9 not out) stood firm to see out the last nine overs with the new ball through to stumps at 6.15pm.
“I feel like it was an important toss,” said Steven Croft.
“A sort of Emirates Old Trafford wicket of old, really. It was hard work.
“And (I was) sort of pleased where we finished off. I thought we created chances throughout the day. And the lads put in a great shift throughout the day.
“Once they got going and they're top of the league, it could have been a lot worse. Obviously, we would have liked to have done better.
“We dropped a couple of tough chances. If one of those stick and a couple of decisions go our way, it could have been different. But again, it was a pleasing performance from where we've been at.
“The lads have gone about their business really well all week, really. There's obviously some trauma around the week, I suppose.
“But the lads have really cracked on with training and in the game and being really professional with it.”
Ken Grime
Photos: Luke Adams & Dan Adams
