County Championship: Durham beat Worcestershire to earn first win of season
With a day to spare at Kidderminster, Durham defeated Worcestershire by 185 runs to claim their first County Championship win of the year.
Worcestershire was given a challenging 458 target, but Paul Coughlin’s early three-wicket burst destroyed any serious aspirations of victory.
Even though Nathan Smith and Matthew Waite put up a fight late in the game, Matthew Potts cemented the lead, and half the team was out of the game after just 28 overs.
The contest between the two promoted teams from the previous season was easily won by Durham.
Playing on a hitters’ paradise at Edgbaston with a Kookaburra ball following a washout in the opening game against Hampshire, their attack of Ben Raine, Potts, and Coughlin demonstrated their quality throughout.
After 50 minutes of play, Durham was back on 319-5 as Ollie Robinson and Graham Clark blasted 78 off 13 overs to create the stage for the declaration.
In 28.1 overs, the fourth-wicket stand was worth an uninterrupted 132.
Gareth Roderick and Jake Libby, the openers for Worcestershire, got off to a solid start, but in the last over before lunch, two wickets went in two balls.
Coughlin bowled Roderick off the inside edge, and Brett D’Oliveira completed a pair by clipping the next delivery straight to mid-wicket.
After Rob Jones was caught at backwards point, Coughlin got a third wicket. Potts then came back and hit straight away as Adam Hose pushed forward and was out of the game.
The run of wickets continued when Potts sent Jason Holder through the gate and then had Adam Hose leg before wicket.
After hitting fifty of the 87 balls, Libby’s determined knock was interrupted by the following delivery. He attempted to block Raine’s hook shot, but all he managed to do was lobbing up a soft catch to mid-wicket.
After a 103-run partnership between Smith and Waite in 30 overs, Smith was dismissed by Raine, Josh Baker was caught behind, and Waite was eventually strangled down the leg side to give Coughlin a fourth wicket. Parkinson then finished off Adam Finch to conclude the match.
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