Lancashire 357 (Jennings 115, Raine 3-67) and 353 for 9 dec (Jennings 155, Stokes 5-98) beat Durham 236 (Bedingham 101, Aspinwall 5-41, Lyon 4-59) and 414 (Robinson 171*, Bedingham 103, Balderson 4-52) by 60 runs
That was laborious on Bedingham, who made two tons of within the recreation, and Robinson, who completed on the dropping aspect regardless of making a career-best 171 not out. However the consequence appeared unlikely when the Durham pair have been placing on 216 for the fourth wicket and taking Durham to 313 for 3 in pursuit of 475 to win.
The morning session started poorly for Lancashire. Robinson pulled Saqib Mahmood for 2 sixes in his opening overs and Durham scored 50 runs within the first 45 minutes of play. It was simply on the hour mark when Lyon bowled the primary maiden of the day, by which era each Bedingham and Robinson had reached their fifties.
Nearly the one scare the Durham batters suffered within the first two hours got here when Bedingham was dropped on 54, Luke Wells simply failing to cling on to a pointy one-handed probability to his proper off Lyon.
Robinson ultimately reached his first century of the season off 132 balls, having scored 90 runs within the morning, with a sweep off Lyon within the over earlier than lunch. On the interval, Durham have been 284 for 3; Bedingham and Robinson had scored 150 runs off 30 overs within the session.
After lunch, Keaton Jennings entrusted his assault to the spinners and the circulate of runs slowed a bit of. However Bedingham copied Jennings by making his second century of the match when he cover-drove Wells for 4 and it was solely the tenth time within the historical past of the County Championship that two gamers have achieved the feat in the identical match.
Having reached that landmark, Bedingham pushed ahead to his subsequent supply and was caught by Matty Hurst off Lyon for 103, thus ending his 216-run fourth-wicket stand with Robinson.
That breakthrough for Lancashire introduced Stokes to the wicket along with his aspect nonetheless needing 162 to win however having taken 22 balls to get off the mark with a reverse-swept 4 off Lyon, the England captain then took a 4 and a six off successive balls from Wells’ subsequent over. Nevertheless, the leg-spinner had his revenge shortly afterwards when Stokes was bowled for 18 when trying a reverse-sweep to a full-length supply.
Lancashire took the brand new ball with the rating on 362 for 5 just for Graham Clark’s pulled six off Aspinwall to take Durham to inside 100 of their goal. That, although, was adopted by what appeared a pivotal over as Balderson had Clark caught behind for 18 and Paul Coughlin taken at slip by Jennings for a second-ball nought.
Subsequent over, Balderson sprinted forwards to take a return catch off bat and pad to eliminate Ben Raine for 3. A big mix-up between new batter Matthew Potts and Robinson noticed Potts run out for 2 because of substitute fielder George Lavelle’s correct throw to the bowler’s finish.
Robinson then took the assault to Lancashire’s bowler however his 26-run last-wicket partnership with Callum Parkinson ended when Parkinson was caught at slip by Jennings, Lancashire’s twin-centurion, off Balderson.
It’s Lancashire’s first victory of the season within the County Championship however it could possibly take them no greater than ninth within the First Division. The one draw back for the Pink Rose was that Mahmood bowled solely two overs on the final day and gave the impression to be affected by an unspecified harm.
