This same game last year marked the start of the circus surrounding Michael Vaughan’s forlorn attempt to return to Test cricket, giving Mitchell Claydon a brief moment of fame when he removed the would-be returning hero. That Claydon happened to be an Australian merely added to the poignancy.
Stephen Harmison is now in roughly a similar position. Another Ashes series is approaching and the big man wants his place back. The odds may be against him, as they were all along with Vaughan, but he made a rather more effective start yesterday with two wickets in an impressive new-ball spell.
Generating pace and establishing a generally good line, Harmison nipped one back to remove David Sales leg-before and then tempted James Taylor to fish outside off stump, having almost taken an edge two balls earlier. Although a second spell proved more expensive, Harmison had at least made an early point.
It was easy to feel sorry for a weary MCC as they collapsed to 162 all out. Again, they spent the hottest part of the day in the field before Durham declared on 459 for nine. Even then, the scorecard flattered the home side — if we can so describe MCC 3,400 miles from their true home — because Dawid Malan took four cheap wickets late on.Will Smith, the Durham captain, did not enforce the follow-on despite a first-innings lead of 297. A bristling Steve Kirby responded with wickets with his second and third balls, but Durham could still take great encouragement from performances of Ben Stokes and Scott Borthwick, the latest youngsters to emerge through their academy.
Kyle Coetzer extended his stay to 521 minutes and 172 runs before missing a full toss from Malan, but more talk among the loyal band of Durham members here centred on Stokes, an 18-year-old all-rounder who starred for England Under-19 over the winter and marked his first-class debut with a stylish fifty.
The left-hander, who left his native New Zealand at the age of 12, edged a Steve Kirby no-ball to second slip on nine, but played some neat shots straight and lofted Dean Cosker confidently over long-on before succumbing when he attempted one shot too many against James Middlebrook.
Comparisons are unhelpful, but when Stokes later strangled Alex Gidman down the leg side, courtesy of a brilliant catch by Phil Mustard, it was easy to think of another all-rounder who briefly played for Durham, held back nothing with the bat and enjoyed the knack of taking wickets with bad balls. His name would only burden Stokes.
MCC lost Scott Newman in the second over and the slingy Callum Thorp returned after tea to end the joint resistance of James Foster, with a fine return catch, and Malan, who had batted within his limitations. Borthwick, 19, then went through the tail with a mix of leg breaks and googlies to finish with four for 27.
Behind the scenes, Dave Richardson, the ICC general manager (cricket), met John Stephenson and Fraser Stewart, from the MCC, to discuss the pink ball experiment. Richardson believes that a day/night Test is at least 12 months away and has asked for scientific research into the best colour contrast between ball and sightscreen.
“What we want to do is make sure we try to co-ordinate all of the different projects happening now,” he said. “Manufacturers are doing their own things, some national cricket boards are doing their things, MCC is doing something. What we want to try to do is make sure we take a co-ordinated approach.
“Manufacturers are saying, ‘You tell us what you need and we’ll develop it for you’, but we don’t know what we need. The first step has to be the scientific approach, to go to these research guys and get them to tell us what we should be asking for. We need to establish scientifically what makes sense, pink, orange or what.
“At the moment, the data collected is all very much on a hearsay kind of basis — what did the wicketkeeper think, what did the fielders think, what did the TV guys think and so on. That is helpful and progress is positive, but before we think of that, we need to establish the science that makes sense.”
Durham: First Innings
M J Di Venuto st Foster b Middlebrook 131
K J Coetzer lbw b Malan 172
*W R Smith c Newman b Middlebrook 13
D M Benkenstein b Cosker 41
I D Blackwell c Sales b Kirby 13
B A Stokes c Newman b Middlebrook 51
†P Mustard not out 23
S G Borthwick c Sales b Malan 0
C D Thorp c and b Malan 0
M E Claydon c Gidman b Malan 0
Extras (b 4, lb 9, nb 2) 15
Total (9 wickets dec; 138 overs) 459
S J Harmison did not bat.
Fall of wickets: 1-181, 2-203, 3-295, 4-330, 5-411, 6-457, 7-457, 8-459, 9-459.
Bowling: Lewis 12-3-34-0; Murtagh 19-2-91-0; Kirby 20-7-48-1; Middlebrook 35-4-118-3; Gidman 11-3-36-0; Cosker 29-6-77-1; Malan 6-1-20-4; Taylor 6-0-22-0.
Second Innings
*W R Smith not out 4
S G Borthwick c Foster b Kirby 0
D M Benkenstein lbw b Kirby 0
I D Blackwell not out 3
Extras 0
Total (2 wickets; 4 overs) 7
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-0.
Bowling: Murtagh 2-1-4-0; Kirby 2-1-3-2.
MCC: First Innings
S A Newman lbw b Thorp 0
D J Malan c Borthwick b Thorp 41
D J G Sales lbw b Harmison 4
J W A Taylor c Mustard b Harmison 0
*A P R Gidman c Mustard b Stokes 29
†J S Foster c and b Thorp 26
J D Middlebrook not out 11
T J Murtagh c Benkenstein b Borthwick 21
J Lewis c Di Venuto b Borthwick 0
D A Cosker b Borthwick 1
S P Kirby b Borthwick 13
Extras (b 4, lb 8, nb 4) 16
Total (45.5 overs) 162
Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-6, 3-6, 4-41, 5-102, 6-103, 7-132, 8-132, 9-142.
Bowling: Harmison 9-2-37-2; Thorp 10-7-25-3; Claydon 10-3-31-0; Stokes 4-0-14-1; Blackwell 8-2-16-0; Borthwick 4.5-0-27-4.
Umpires: B Dudleston (England) and R T Robinson (England).
Source:The Times
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