Brown and Read punish Durham
Jon Culley
12-May-2010
Nottinghamshire's emphatically successful start to the Championship season is likely to be extended to a fourth win in four matches after Durham, the defending champions, suffered one of their poorest days in recent memory, conceding a first-innings lead of 341 after a breathtaking Ally Brown-inspired fightback by the home side and then slipping to 88 for 4 at the close.
Durham, champions for the last two seasons, are unbeaten in 23 matches since the 2008 campaign, but unless rain plays a major part on the final day it is hard to see them preserving the record for one more game.
Brown proved again that age need not be a barrier to effectiveness on the cricket field. The former Surrey batsman, who turned 40 in February, stunned Durham with a savage 134 off only 121 balls as he and Chris Read, the home captain, led Nottinghamshire from 226 for 6 to a tea-time declaration on 559 for 8.
It was a spectacular turnaround in which Durham's current troubles were painfully exposed. With four bowlers ruled out by injury, they are obliged to play both Steve Harmison and Liam Plunkett when neither can be considered fully fit, while Dale Benkenstein is playing but cannot bowl because of a dodgy knee.
Harmison and Plunkett both conceded more than one hundred runs, as did Chris Rushworth, although the Sunderland-born seamer at least claimed his first Championship wickets. Harmison threatened at times and was unlucky not to have some success in the first hour but looked tired and frustrated as the afternoon turned into one of unbroken carnage.
And while Durham can plead extenuating circumstances, there was no pretending that the way in which Brown, Read and Paul Franks batted them out of the game was not massively impressive, suggesting that it will be a good side that denied Nottinghamshire their title aspirations.
Yet it had appeared at first that Nottinghamshire were no more comfortable with a lively pitch than Durham had been in labouring to 218 in their first innings.
The first ball of the day did not augur well. Mark Wagh, who has been looking as though he is beginning to tame his more impetuous tendencies, reverted to type by driving airily at Rushworth's loosener, which flew off the edge to Michael di Venuto at second slip.
Rushworth does not look out of place at this level, despite his elevation from club cricket, and the opening 40 minutes earned him three wickets as he brought one back to trap Samit Patel leg before and had Mullaney edging also to second slip.
Harmison should have had Mullaney had his brother, Ben, clung on to a chance at third slip and Nottinghamshire, just eight runs in front, seemed sure to scrape together only a modest advantage.
But when Read joined Brown in the middle the tone of the innings changed dramatically as Nottinghamshire demonstrated the depth of their batting.
Brown went on the counter-attack with exhilarating gusto. He and Read are both bold, aggressive hitters and having accelerated the total to 333 for 6 at lunch, they added another 130 before Brown's blitz ended, Phil Mustard plucking an uppercut out of the air above his head to give Plunkett revenge of sorts, having been hit for six by Brown the previous ball.
The former England one-day batsman, the first of whose 46 career hundreds was made against Nottinghamshire for Surrey in 1992, had hit 17 fours and three sixes. He also passed 1,000 career runs in first-class matches against Durham at an average of 59.35. He has 1,000 runs or more against seven counties now and centuries against all of them bar Surrey.
The partnership with Read, who survived a painful blow on the right hand from Rushworth on 73 and was caught off a no-ball on 87, realised 237 runs in 42 overs. Read's unbeaten 124 was his 17th first-class hundred and took him beyond 10,000 career runs.
Durham wilted, almost as if the weight of statistics was too much as Brown and Read pulled and drove with mounting confidence and authority. None of Durham's bowlers could restrict them and for the novices - Rushworth and Ben Stokes - it was an uncomfortable experience from which there was no hiding place.
Yet it did not end there. Franks pitched in with 64 off 45 balls as Harmison's body language began to give away his frustration. His 28 overs cost 123 as Durham acquired another unwanted stat by conceding more than 500 first-innings runs in back-to-back games for the first time since 1992, their debut season.
Read declared at tea, 341 in front, after the afternoon session had yeilded 226 runs, but Durham's troubles were not over. Darren Pattinson produced a fine delivery to have di Venuto caught at second slip, Steven Mullaney made Will Smith pay for fishing outside off stump, Franks found some extra bounce that Benkenstein could only fend to second slip and Charlie Shreck had Kyle Coetzer leg before. They have it all to do on the final day.
