Durham Match Thread 2025

[Durhamfootman]

we have two paid up members of the spinners union in the senior squad. There's an argument to be had about how good they are, but they are definitely on the books as full time spin bowlers and one of them should always be playing

[Durhamfootman]

No spinner again. Yorkshire have included one

we won the toss and chose to field, which I hope is the right call, but suspect isn't. The weather is unlikely to improve over the weekend, so I'm not sure why we wouldn't just bat

Clark in for the injured Bedders and Coggers in for the injured Hogg. Our lineup shows Robbo at 4, but I rather imagine Rhodes will bat there

[sussexpob]

How long is Beddo out for?

Asking a lot of Lees and Ackerman to make runs, without him

[Durhamfootman]

not sure. I guess it depends on how bad the fracture is. If he was told to rest up for 4 weeks, that would pretty much rule him out for half the season. It's a worry

[captaincolly]

No spinner again. Yorkshire have included one

we won the toss and chose to field, which I hope is the right call, but suspect isn't. The weather is unlikely to improve over the weekend, so I'm not sure why we wouldn't just bat

Clark in for the injured Bedders and Coggers in for the injured Hogg. Our lineup shows Robbo at 4, but I rather imagine Rhodes will bat there

I was surprised we didn't bat. Both openers out after a solid start. This policy of not including a spinner is an odd one given the previous stance was to always play one.

[captaincolly]

209/6. The last session absolutely crucial, we've been here before where the last 4 wickets add a ridiculous amount of runs- and Bess is a reap dangerman.

[Durhamfootman]

blimey, it was chilly today. I went down after lunch, because my phone said the temp was going to reach mid teens during the afternoon session, which it nearly did, but the cold wind made it feel baltic. I had planned to stay until 5 or half past, but I gave up at tea and went home

It was poor cricket. We didn't really bowl very well and Yorkshire didn't really bat very well. Doggett bowled pretty well, Raine was disciplined but not very threatening. Potts and Coughlin bowled utter tripe.... really poor.

I'm going to nominate today for the worst ball change of the season award. Young Johny Blameless was on 1 run off about 20 deliveries. He couldn't hit a thing. Potts was bowling dross, so asked the umpires to check the ball, they changed it and Bairstow suddenly spanked 5 boundaries off the next 6 balls he faced from the changed ball. Crowd were shouting out to get the old ball back.

First time I've actually watched Rhodes bowl and he did take the wicket of Revis who top edged a pull shot straight to 1st slip and because Rhodes was bowling he wasn't at 1st slip to drop it. We mustn't have too much faith in his bowling, because even with new batters in Revis and then Bess, we only had one slip in, 3 out on the ropes and the rest spread everywhere. Why aren't we playing a spinner?

[Durhamfootman]

I watched Wharton bat for the first time. I think he's modelled his batting technique on the Viz cartoon character 'Spawny Get'. He literally edged everything. He looks organised defensively, but what I saw only has one attacking shot, the straight drive... and sometimes he even hit it there. Most of the time he either nicked it through to the third man boundary, nicked it out to the backward point boundary or inside edged it down to the finest of fine legs. It was a remarkable thing to watch somebody so clearly out of form, suddenly race from 13 to 50 in about half an hour whilst only hitting a couple of genuine shots. He looked very obviously like a totally front footed player and he literally left everything that would have required playing off the back foot. The only time he was tempted into playing a pull shot, he looped it to McKinney who was patrolling the square leg boundary

George Hill, on the other hand looks like a good player. It was also the first time I've watched him bat and I was pretty impressed with him. Has a Harry Brook look about him.

YJB was all at sea for most of his innings, as was Dawid Malan.... he couldn't connect with anything, so it was no surprise that when he did get some bat on ball it was gobbled up in the slips (by Rhodes too.... oh the ignominy)

As expected, Bess is combining with Hill for an inevitable monster 7th wicket match defining stand. Currently 79, but you'll be able to add another hundred to that, particularly now that Potts and Coughlin are having to bowl again

[Durhamfootman]

In addition to his runs, I fully expect Good Dom Bess to take at least 6 wickets in this match

why aren't we playing a spinner?

Doggett is bowling now, so we clearly don't intend giving him the new ball in a few overs time. I don't know why not

[Durhamfootman]

these two are motoring now

100 run stand coming up in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

[Durhamfootman]

Play curtailed just after we took another 2 wickets. Light presumably

at least we didn't get to polish them off with just enough time to lose 2 or 3 late wickets ourselves

[captaincolly]

Play curtailed just after we took another 2 wickets. Light presumably

at least we didn't get to polish them off with just enough time to lose 2 or 3 late wickets ourselves

Good to get those two wickets before the bad light but another day when things didn't click. There was something inevitable about that lower order partnership and who would be surprised if there's another one ( or two!) in the morning.!

[Durhamfootman]

I'm less concerned about that, than I am about a top order collapse from us

[Durhamfootman]

It's going well, but now we're off for bad light

224-1, 83 behind

Lees 139* going along at 80's, Gay 74* taking a wee bit more time, understandably.... he won't want to squander this innings the way he did last week

the trouble is they went off early last night and that will have set the benchmark for the rest of the match. It is a gloomy old day, but it isn't that dark in truth.

Unless we can go on to a huge first innings lead, which will be hard with three of the next four batters completely out of nick, I reckon this will have draw written all over it. The weather isn't going to improve very much over the next 2 days and there could be rain on Monday anyway

[Durhamfootman]

well we're back out, but how long for?