Muchall century saves Durham
Gordon Muchall ground his way to an attritional, but much-needed century, as Durham avoided the follow-on against India A at the Riverside
Wisden CricInfo staff
29-Jun-2003
Close India A 482 for 9 and 3 for 0 (Das 3*, Gambhir 0*) lead Durham 333 for 9 (Muchall 121) by 152 runs
Gordon Muchall ground his way to an attritional, but much-needed century, as Durham avoided the follow-on against India A at the Riverside. After resuming on their overnight 94 for 1, Durham's middle-order was bamboozled by the twin spin attack of Amit Mishra and Murali Kartik, who twirled down 77 overs in the day between them, and sent Durham crashing from 175 for 1 to 244 for 7.
Muchall, however, refused to succumb, and on a sluggish Riverside pitch, he inched his way to 121 from 249 balls. Michael Gough had been equally watchful in the early part of the day, needing 180 balls to bring up his fifty. But a rare rush of blood did for him, as he charged down the pitch and was stumped by Parthiv Patel off Mishra for 56 (175 for 2).
Mishra eventually finished with 3 for 85 and Kartik 4 for 112, and the only batsman to have any measure of dominance over them was Ian Hunter, who lamped an entertaining 44 from 54 balls late in the day. But when he was dismissed at 310 for 8, Durham were still 23 runs from avoiding the follow-on. But they made it with one wicket to spare, and immediately declared, leaving India A three overs at the end of the third day.