Durham 273 v Warwickshire 135 & 127-4
Warwickshire showed plenty of fighting spirit on the second day at Durham but still require something inspirational in the second half of the match to repair the damage caused by their first-innings batting implosion.
Boyd Rankin’s first Championship five-wicket haul, followed by a welcome return to form with the bat for Jim Troughton, at least delayed the home side’s charge towards a victory which remains highly likely.
Rankin, with five for 85, and the impressive Naqaash Tahir kept the first-innings deficit down to 138, still a significant margin but not the towering one Durham had in mind after skittling the Bears for 135.
Still, when Warwickshire slipped to 34 for three second time round, the First Division leaders were eyeing a two-day win. But Troughton, riding his luck at times, posted his first half-century in 11 Championship attempts to hold up the champions and retain a crumb of hope for the Bears of a great escape.
Warwickshire took important wickets between showers on the second morning. After Durham resumed on 173 for four, overnight batsmen Dale Benkenstein and Ian Blackwell, a dangerous pair, were soon uprooted. Blackwell nicked Tahir to Tim Ambrose then Benkenstein edged Rankin and Rikki Clarke clutched his 21st championship catch of the season.
Rankin claimed further reward for a long spell from the Finchall End with two wickets in three balls to clinch his five-for. Phil Mustard cut hard and was brilliantly caught by Troughton at point. Callum Thorp was bowled neck and crop by a ball of impressively full length. If only Rankin could hit that length more frequently. If he eradicates a tendency to drop short, a flaw which relieves pressure on the batsmen, the Irishman will be twice the bowler.
Mitchell Claydon lifted Chris Woakes to mid-wicket and when Sreesanth finally took a wicket in the 73rd over of the innings, a wholehearted effort in the field had kept Durham within distant sight.
The Bears had nine overs batting before tea and failed to survive them unscathed. Unwritten Law Of Cricket 7b (ii) states that, when a player is in terrible form, he gets any bad luck or excellent deliveries going. Therefore, having been adjudged lbw to a ball he inside-edged in the first innings, in the second Ian Westwood copped a near-unplayable lifter and sent it looping to gully.
Straight after tea Ant Botha and Tony Frost perished to careless shots outside off-stump but Troughton and Tim Ambrose went for broke. Both have tried, at times, to grind their way out of their current rut, Ambrose to almost anaesthetising effect at Trent Bridge last week. Now they attacked their way out.
They added 82 in 18 overs before spinner Ian Blackell was introduced and struck with his ninth ball, Ambrose edging to slip for 39 (83 balls, eight fours).
That triggered the arrival of Rikki Clarke and, for the first time in the match, three pied wagtails at the Finchall End. Troughton and Clarke closed out the day efficiently, as did the wagtails.
This morning they will continue their challenge to Warwickshire’s record fifth-wicket partnership against Durham, the 322 posted by Brian Lara and Keith Piper at Edgbaston on 1994. Troughton and Clarke, that is, not the wagtails.
