Hameed building his own Great Wall

Lancashire 205 for 4 (Hameed 74, Petersen 61) trail Durham 411 (Borthwick 134, Collingwood 97, Bailey 5-110) by 206 runs
Scorecard

The story goes that South Africa's captain, Alan Melville, was so absorbed in his own innings during a 1947 Test match that he failed to notice one of his partners had been dismissed. "Where's Dudley?" he asked an astonished team-mate during one of the stranger midwicket conferences in cricket history.

Haseeb Hameed is 19 years old and such bizarre inattention on his part would probably merit a bollocking from one of Lancashire's battle-tempered old pros. All the same he already shows an unnerving devotion to the art of batting and an ability to concentrate which some players ten years his senior never acquire. And Lancashire had need of Hameed's precocious mental strength on the second afternoon of this game at the Riverside.

For 263 minutes he answered the call, carefully accumulating runs with gentle certainty and what the former Lancashire coach, Peter Moores, identifies as "quietness" at the crease. Only when it seemed all but sure that he would be batting on Tuesday morning did he err, fatally missing a pull off a monstrous Scott Borthwick long hop and being bowled for 74 four overs before the close. The fact that his runs had helped his side construct a decent reply to Durham's 411 will comfort Hameed but it will not assuage his disappointment at losing his treasured wicket. He might, though, be rather comforted by the joy of Durham's players when they removed him.

"It wasn't nice but that's cricket for you," he said gamely. "Sometimes you get a jaffa and sometimes balls like that can get you out but hopefully next time I can push on and get a hundred."

Lancashire were already 21 for 2, having lost Karl Brown and Luke Procter, both caught by Ryan Pringle at third slip off James Weighell, when Hameed was joined by Alviro Petersen at just past two o'clock. Time, by the way, may be significant to everyone else on the planet but Hameed gives no indication that it matters to him. "You think you are a Time Lord, Doctor," one can imagine him informing Gallifrey's most famous son, "but I think I can show you something about time. We shall begin by playing a game of cricket. I'll bat first…."

Hameed and Petersen repaired their side's damaged innings with a partnership of 104 in 44.3 overs. Petersen was the quicker scorer but not by the margin that those who watched Hameed's 225-ball 62 against Hampshire might imagine. When Durham's second string seamers, Brydon Carse and Barry McCarthy, over-pitched outside the off stump, Hameed unfurled his drive through point, thus supporting the argument that those who label him a blocker are missing the point. He already has a sophisticated ability to weigh risk against reward. His clip to square leg off a Carse half-volley to reach his fifty was an almost contemptuous dismissal of a rank bad ball.

Long before that, however, Hameed had to survive a fine spell from Graham Onions, who remains one of English cricket's most rigorous inquisitors. On several occasions just after lunch Hameed was beaten outside the off stump by Onions. Each time this happened he walked to square leg, as if assimilating what he had learned; invariably he played the previous shot again. After bowling nine overs for nine runs Paul Collingwood took Onions off and Hameed had won another small contest. It would have been interesting to see how he might have fared had Chris Rushworth's buttock injury not kept him out of this game.

As it was, Hameed and Petersen enjoyed a measure of freedom in the development of their partnership. The pair went into this game with almost identical first-class averages, albeit that Petersen has played over 200 games more. While the South African found the gaps in the field with greater facility, his partner radiated greater permanence, so it was not greatly surprising when Petersen was lbw for 61 in Onions's second spell when trying to work the ball to leg.

Hameed was joined by Croft and continued in his profound method. Time, and then time again, the bat was drawn from stumps to crease and the guard checked with a patient umpire.

Evening drifted away and how the Lancashire supporters enjoyed it as they sat in the sun traps around the Riverside. So they did on the pavilion balcony, too, where the players have already nicknamed Hameed "the Great Wall of Bolton". The batsman himself probably likes it, for it carries echoes of Rahul Dravid. For both batsmen the forward defensive seems a beautiful stroke, an exposition of character.

And as Collingwood rotated his bowlers and changed the field, placing both short mid-off and short mid-on for Hameed when Onions was bowling, Durham's skipper probably appreciated the arrival of a batsman of palpable pedigree. In the morning session Collingwood had fallen three runs short of a century which most at the Riverside, even the visiting supporters unblinded by zealotry, would have liked to see.

For some English cricketers their team's shirt is a flag of financial convenience; for others it is a demonstration of tribal loyalty, a matter of blood. It still comes as something of a shock to realise that Jack Bond played for Nottinghamshire or that Jack Hampshire had three seasons with Derbyshire. Collingwood is 40 on May 26 and he will eventually retire having been a Durham cricketer for over two decades. During those years he has worn the county's coat of arms with nothing less than the full measure of devotion. Durham may need more than a few bob from the ECB; they will not want for heart while Collingwood is around.

Nor need Lancashire supporters be anxious about at least one of their side's opening batting positions for the next couple of summers. After that, though the future is more uncertain, because before too long, Haseeb Hameed will play for England. He has at least 15 years of next times ahead of him.