Durham left needing four to win after bad light halts day three at Chester-le-Street
Durham were taken to the final day after bad light stopped play on day three of their Rothesay County Championship Division Two match against Gloucestershire at Chester-le-Street, leaving the hosts needing four runs to win.
Kasey Aldridge produced a nine-wicket match haul, bettering his previous first-class best match figures of 8-78, but poor light prevented him converting his performance into a three-day victory. Scoreboard details from the fixture show Gloucestershire 137 (Aldridge 5-16) and 250 (Hammond 58), Durham 384 (Bedingham 122), with Langridge returning 3-89; Durham (6 pts) need four runs to beat Gloucs (3 pts).
Durham resumed the day on 331-8 and quickly pushed past 350 as their tail added useful runs, with contributions from Aldridge, Brydon Carse and Matthew Potts helping the first-innings total reach 384 for a lead of 247. Carse then struck early in Gloucestershire’s second innings, removing James Hayes for 16 and Joe Phillips twice fell cheaply, the latter a duck to Carse.
Potts added 15 before falling to JT Langridge, who finished with three wickets in the innings, and Bancroft and Miles Hammond steadied the visitors to 50-2 by the lunch interval. Bancroft and Hammond counter-attacked against the change bowlers to reach that score with no further loss before the break.
After lunch the left-handed Hammond negotiated a nine-over Ben Stokes spell to reach 50 off 80 balls and put on a solid partnership with captain Cameron Bancroft, but Aldridge removed Hammond for 58 with a rising delivery that induced an edge. Aldridge dismissed Bancroft for 46 in his next over and Tommy Boorman followed shortly after, leaving Gloucestershire five down and still 115 in arrears.
As dusk approached Aldridge uprooted Daz Ahmed for a 14-ball duck to register nine wickets in the match, and Carse later removed James Bracey with an in-swinger to leave Gloucestershire 173-7. Light then forced Colin Ackermann into the attack and he struck with his second ball to end Mitch Killeen’s innings, leaving Gloucestershire two wickets away.
Ackermann bowled in partnership with Will Rhodes while Sai Kishore hit two sixes on his way to 29, and Ackermann accounted for Hayes, who chipped to mid-wicket as Gloucestershire became nine down, still trailing by 36. A tenth-wicket stand of 39 between Kishore (29 not out) and JT Langridge (36) edged Gloucestershire into a slender lead before Langridge holed out; umpires returned briefly but play was abandoned just after 18:20 BST with Gloucestershire refusing to bowl spin and as little as one ball of action in prospect for day four.
When play resumes on day four Durham will require four runs to complete the win and are positioned for what the report describes as a seventh victory in 10 games.
