Resilient Durham stretch rewarding run

Durham completed their third Specsavers County Championship in the last five games 15 minutes before lunch as they beat Derbyshire by nine wickets at Chester-le-Street.

After the shock of beginning the season with a 48-point deduction, they have become stronger as the season has progressed.

The visitors were all out for 354, leaving Keaton Jennings and Tom Latham to score 39 for the maximum points win which took Durham above Derbyshire.

After edging a short, wide one to fall to the first ball of the match, Jennings was immediately fed something similar by Hardus Viljoen but studiously left it alone. He got off the mark by coming down hard enough on a yorker to squeeze it through mid-off for three.

In the ninth over he cut Viljoen for two fours, but with only eight needed he went to pull another short one and lobbed it to square leg to depart for 16. Latham stroked two off-side fours off Harry Podmore, on loan from Middlesex, in the next over to finish on 23.

Durham needed just under an hour to wrap up the Derbyshire innings when they resumed on 305 for six in pleasant sunshine.

Graham Onions struck with the day's fourth ball. After seeing Harvey Hosein pick up an edged four and a single, reducing the deficit to six, he had Tony Palladino caught behind.

Podmore collected the runs which put Derbyshire ahead then edged Chris Rushworth between slips and gully for four to reach ten. But without addition a similar edge in Rushworth's next over flew at head height for Ryan Pringle to hold the catch at third slip.

Two balls later Onions swung one in to have Hosein lbw before Imran Tahir nonchalantly slapped him square for four then sliced another boundary wide of gully.

He saw little of the strike in the next few overs as Hardus Viljoen showed some pedigree, hooking Rushworth for four before Durham turned to the leg-spin of Cameron Steel.

In his second over Tahir tried to turn him to leg and looked shocked to be adjudged lbw, ending a stand of 29 with Viljoen on 19.