Potts Steers Durham to Brink of Victory

By Jon Culley

England seamer Matty Potts bowled the visitors to the brink of victory with figures of seven for 49, leaving Durham to chase a modest target of 105 to claim only their second win of a their LV= Insurance County Championship season.

Combined with his six for 52 in the first innings, it gave the 23-year-old Sunderland-born bowler, who made a strong impression in five Test appearances earlier in the summer, career-best match figures of 13 for 101.

Louis Kimber’s 75 kept Leicestershire just about in the game as they scored 202 in their second innings on a pitch that was still making batting difficult at times. Durham were two down for 51 at the close but the odds are still heavily in their favour, with just 54 more needed on the final day.

Potts took his wickets in three spells, three in 10 overs at the top of the innings, three more wickets in eight overs either side of tea, before coming back at nine down to add one more.

Durham had established a 94-run first-innings lead by adding 57 to their overnight score in the hour and 20 minutes or so it took for Leicestershire to take their last five wickets.

Nic Maddinson top-scored with 56 - his first half-century for Durham - but their total of 296 was fewer than they had been looking for at 239 for five overnight.

Tom Scriven recorded his maiden first-class wicket for Leicestershire when he dismissed Ben Raine, caught behind via an inside edge on to pad, in the first over of the day, and Durham collapsed as soon as the second new ball was taken 10 overs into the day.

Michael Finan, the whippy left-arm quick who made his debut only last week, delivered an excellent spell. He trapped Tomas Mackintosh leg before with an inswinging yorker and squared up Maddinson, who edged to second slip.

Potts was also caught at second slip, attempting to leave a ball from Ed Barnes that climbed on him, before Chris Wright cleaned up Ollie Gibson.

Leicestershire’s brittle batting was exposed again as they then sank to 54 for four in their second innings.

Debutant Sol Budinger, who impressed with his 64 in the first innings, perished without scoring, Potts finding a way past his defensive bat to clip the top of middle and off.

Hassan Azad was caught at short leg fending off his ribs from Potts before Rishi Patel slashed at one from Raine and was snared brilliantly by Scott Borthwick, diving to his left at second slip.

Colin Ackermann was then beaten for pace as Potts claimed his ninth wicket of the match.

Kimber at least offered some defiance, his 75 spanning almost three hours and at least ensuring that Durham would have work to do in the fourth innings.

At the other end, the batters were less enduring. Harry Swindells, dropped by Gibson on one off his own bowling, became Potts’s 10th victim when a thin edge saw him caught behind for 16, but he and Kimber added 64.

Kimber went to his half-century with the first ball after tea, pulled through midwicket off Potts for a 10th boundary, but Durham’s England man inflicted more damage with wickets in his next two overs as Scriven and then Barnes departed, both finding Potts too good.

Four boundaries from Kimber within a couple of overs, taking his tally to 14, stretched Leicestershire’s lead a little more, but his downfall came in the form of a ball angled into his pads by Gibson and a successful appeal for leg before.

That was followed by one of the more bizarre dismissals as Wright was bowled by a ball he played into the ground at his feet with the bottom of his bat, but which then bounced up almost vertically and freakishly landed on the top of his stumps, Wright losing sight of it and therefore powerless to intervene.

Potts then returned to make Parkinson his seventh victim in the innings and 13th in the match, caught at first slip, leaving Durham to face 15 overs before the close.

Michael Finan, whose left-arm seam had been impressive in the first innings, produced two fine balls to bowl Sean Dickson and pin Borthwick leg before in his first three overs, but Durham navigated the remaining time safely.