Durham push for title hits setback

Sep 20 2008 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

DURHAM experienced that horrible, sickening feeling you get when a precious vase slips through your fingers and heads towards the floor, where it is destined to shatter into tiny pieces.

In Durham’s case the precious vase was the County Championship title as Sussex’s batsmen frustrated their bowling attack yesterday, when Nottinghamshire secured a victory which will give them at least a ten-point lead at the top of the table with one game left to play.

With Sussex looking secure on 267-6 heading into the fourth and final day, the game at the Riverside is almost certainly heading towards a draw. Nevertheless, while Durham have dropped the vase, it has not hit the floor and there could still be time for them to grasp it again.

Captain Dale Benkenstein last night admitted as much, saying: “If we have a good morning and get 250 ahead, it gives us a chance of making something out of it. But it’s the same with them; if they get level with us, then they have very skilful bowlers. We were 50-6 this morning. So even though it is slim, they have a chance – and we have a chance.”

While Notts’ comprehensive win over relegated Surrey has put them in the driving seat, their opponents at Trent Bridge next week, Hampshire, Somerset and Durham will all head into the final game retaining a chance of claiming English cricket’s most prestigious prize.

In likelihood, Durham will need to win at Kent, hope Hampshire beat Nottinghamshire and Somerset are unable to beat Lancashire to lift the title for the first time in their history, but it is not beyond the realms of possibility.

A victory here would have put them in a far stronger position, but the bowler-friendly pitch they had expected following weeks of heavy rain over Chester-le-Street failed to materialise.

Such matters are beyond their control, but it should also be pointed out that, while the weather, which also deprived them of an entire day’s play in this contest, is an excuse, they have still failed to perform at their best.

When Thursday’s heroes with the bat, Gareth Breese and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, both fell early yesterday, Durham’s tail faltered badly and they fell 20 runs short of the 400 total which would have given them maximum bonus points with the bat. Their last six wickets went for just 55 runs.

With 380 on the board, Durham still looked capable of forcing a win, but the prospect of 20 wickets falling in less than six full sessions quickly faded as Sussex openers Chris Nash and Michael Yardy reached 41 without loss at lunch.

When Yardy was run out by an excellent direct hit from Will Smith running in from mid-wicket, Durham had a glimmer of a chance again, particularly when Steve Harmison removed England team-mate Luke Wright for a duck with a ball which left the right-hander.

Sussex, though, were happy to see Harmison’s threat nullified by the slow surface and Nash moved on virtually untroubled. The 25-year-old had reached 96 when he decided to try to launch Paul Wiseman’s off spin back over his head, misjudged the flight and was bowled.

In the third over after tea, Durham wicketkeeper Phil Mustard enjoyed some good fortune, when he managed to divert the ball off his shoulder to stump Murray Goodwin off the bowling of Wiseman. Mustard had enjoyed no such luck with the bat, dragging the ball on to his wicket from at least a yard outside off stump –

But still Durham’s attack could not build up any significant pressure. Harmison eventually accounted for Matt Prior as he edged a drive to Mustard and Breese trapped Carl Hopkinson leg before, but the light , and time, were not in the home side’s favour.

That sense of frustration will not have been eased during the tea interval when Durham’s Second XI were presented to the crowd as County Champions in the second tier competition.

In their ranks recently have been England fast bowling pair Graham Onions and Liam Plunkett and it is a worrying sign that the county’s best two prospects with the ball have lost their place this season because of poor form.

Both careers are in danger of stagnating – Onions began the summer playing for England Lions – and that is something both need to remedy over the winter, whatever the outcome of the title race next week.