Short boundaries aid Durham's long shot as bonus points reach boiling point

Durham unveiled what were thought to be the shortest boundaries ever seen for a Championship match at Emirates Riverside, in a desperate gambit to gain as many batting bonus points as possible to maximise their chances of a top-two finish in the first phase of the competition. Even the less observant spectators, who wouldn't notice if there were two balls on the field, looked askance and wondered what was going on. There is no cricket structure ever invented that does not ultimately surrender to the Stattos. No wonder people are watching the football.

Despite boasting one of the biggest playing surfaces in the country, the boundary rope was brought in to reduce the playing dimensions to 60 metres on both sides. As skulduggery goes, Durham's gambit was both legal and logical, but it did strengthen the case for all those who would prefer the bonus points system to be scrapped.

Durham, third going into the final round of matches, were 15 points behind the leaders, Nottinghamshire, and simply need to beat them and match them for bonus points to qualify for Division One. At the end of an even, hard-fought but slightly colourless first day, Notts were 312 for 9, Liam Patterson-White is unbeaten on 66 and seven short of a career-best and the match feels pretty even. So far, so simple.

The artifice concerned the relative position of the second-placed club, Warwickshire, who took a nine-point advantage into their final match at Worcestershire. In this regard, it gets more complicated. Trigger warning: the next paragraph contains arithmetical discussion and may require concentration.

With a win worth 16 points, and a draw worth eight, if Durham gain more bonus points than Warwickshire they can overhaul that nine point-deficit. In other words, even if they only draw against Notts, but haul in more bonus points, they can still potentially finish in the top two if Warwickshire lose. (That appears to be unlikely but you never know).

With bonus points weighted towards batting (five of the eight are available for scores above 400) the best way of nailing bonus points was to maximise first-innings runs. On a relaid square where Durham have only made 400 once this season, the club has calculated that by adopting short boundaries it will artificially boost first-innings scores.

As the most northerly county, playing on a difficult batting square, with normally big boundaries, Durham have to work harder for their runs; the bonus-point system, over the course of time, puts them at a disadvantage. Therefore, they might argue their chicanery is merely an attempt to balance things up a little. It was still a bit tasteless for all that.

(While that paragraph was being written, TV Breaking News coverage showed the England squad en route to Wembley for the European Championship final. A journey down a motorway has not received such extensive coverage since the world watched a low-speed police chase of OJ Simpson's getaway car 27 years ago. Even the sight of a team bus occasionally changing lane was arguably more exciting than Durham's bonus-point tactics).

That first day never grabbed the attention. Chris Rushworth and Ben Raine, solid professionals to the core, took three wickets each, but even Rushworth would not have not been too impressed to miss kick-off and probably kept an eye on the over-rate. Matty Potts had the sort of loose day that came at an inconvenient time.

Raine judged the surface as comparable to the Derbyshire game earlier in the season where Durham did achieve that 400 only for the match to be drawn.

As well as Patterson-White, Ben Slater made a sound contribution, driving regularly through the off-side during his 60, often certainly, sometimes airily-fairily, occasionally interesting the slips. Twelve fours ensured , as he put it, that he "got value for the shots." Raine eventually bowled him, caught on the crease.

Joe Clarke is Notts' fourth different wicket-keeper in as many matches, following Tom Moores, Ben Duckett and Dane Schadendorf. He is England quality - or should be - and made 48 in typically graceful fashion until he chopped on a short, wide one from Matt Salisbury. He does have other things on his mind: he appears in Mold Crown Court on July 25, one of five people charged with affray in connection with a single alleged incident in Wales last year.

At 276 for 8, Notts were in danger of missing one of those aforementioned batting points, but Stuart Broad stuck around long enough for 300 to be reached before popping the next ball to mid-off. Notts could have declared between those two incidents to deny Durham a bowling point, but did not. There may be powerful arguments on both sides: leave it with you.