Jason Holder and Alex Wakely both posted half centuries as the Steelbacks fell short of a big chase in Durham.
Travelling north with the same squad as the last Specsavers County Championship game against Glamorgan, captain Alex Wakely announced just one change to the side with Richard Levi coming in for Ricardo Vasconcelos. Winning the toss and electing to bowl, Ben Sanderson was straight into the action, taking 2 wickets in his first over to have Durham 7/2.
Clark shouldered arms and lost his off stump to a ball that nipped back in, before the same movement found the edge of Lees bat through to Rossington who took a superb one-handed catch diving to his left.
It took more than 20 overs for the Steelbacks to find their next breakthrough, Luke Procter bowling Steel for 68. Another big partnership was to follow with Bancroft and Richardson combining for 208 and pushing the score past 300. Jason Holder eventually ended the stand in the final over with the wickets of Richardson for 102 and Trevaskis for 0, Durham finishing with 342 from their 50 overs.
Openers Josh Cobb and Richard Levi had the scoreboard moving quickly early on, moving to 33 from the first four overs before Josh Cobb’s leading edge fell into the hands of cover. Rob Newton came to the middle but was unlucky to depart just four overs later, his inside edge going back on to leg stump. Levi followed shortly after, trapped in front for 27, Salisbury with all three wickets.
Rossington and Wakely started to move through the gears, pushing the score past 100 and the partnership to 74 before a Potts Yorker ended Rossington’s innings on 43. Windies captain Jason Holder walked to the middle and both him and Wakely set to work on chasing down the mammoth total.
Both batsman looked untroubled for most of their innings, regularly finding the boundary and keeping the required rate in check. Wakely brought up half century from 55 balls, with Holder also raising his bat off just 50 deliveries. The pair seemed to have things under control before a mistimed pull into the deep from Wakely saw him caught on the boundary for 66.
With 118 still required Holder upped the ante, freeing his arms to a flurry of boundaries to bring hope to the visitors. But with 76 still to win and having lost Keogh at the other end, Holder too found the man in the deep, finishing with 86.
With too much left to do for the tail Durham wrapped things up quickly, the final four wickets falling for just three runs. Procter unfortunate to be strangled down the legside before Buck and Sanderson fell for the cause trying to clear the ropes. The Steelbacks eventually bowled out for 270, 72 runs shy of the target.
Northamptonshire now travel to Derbyshire for our next match on Friday.
Durham 342/5 (50) defeated Northamptonshire 270 (43.5). Full scorecard.
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