Gareth Breese breezed in and blew away Yorkshire in an all-round match performance that few have bettered. After three economical wickets in Yorkshire’s first innings, a century in Durham’s only innings and four even more economical wickets in Yorkshire’s second innings to earn him match figures of 7-31, perhaps he should be changing his name to Gareth Hurricane!

DAY ONE REPORT

Yorkshire won the toss and batted! By lunch, they had scored a century and a half off the Durham bowlers with Gary Ballance leading the way with 65 to his name. But, a foretaste of what was to come, Gareth Breese bowled what seems to be written in stone, the spinner’s token over before the break – except, he was the third spinner to have a go!

He continued after lunch and bowled and bowled until the innings was ended. He took four of the seven wickets that remained while the batsmen could muster a mere 54 more runs between them, his partner in the crime, Scott Borthwick, adding three wickets to the one he took before lunch

Yorkshire were bowled out for 204, Ballance having taken his score to 73, giving Durham half an hour’s batting before tea. A wicket was taken – and a second in the second over after the interval. In came Breese, and in cahoots with Karl Turner and Michael Richardson took the Durham score to within fifty runs of Yorkshire’s score for the three wickets that were lost

DAY TWO REPORT

The partnership between Breese and Richardson flourished and 74 more runs were added to the score before the wicketkeeper was trapped leg before in the first over of Gurman Randhawa’s second spell. Breese’s wicket was captured in the seventh over after lunch, three balls after Borthwick had come to the crease. The leg-spinner was to make merry with the bat! Three successive deliveries in Randhawa’s nineteenth over were driven for four to be followed in the next over by three successive sixes being scored off David Wainwright’s twenty-first over

Wainwright had he last laugh though; he bowled Borthwick with the first ball of his next over, ending an innings which, with Breese and Richardson’s earlier efforts, took Durham into a first innings lead of 184

Yorkshire’s second innings began immediately after the early tea interval. Only six overs had been bowled before Callum Geldart was out and, five balls later, Billy Root was bowled first ball. Two down for 9 did not augur well for the Yorkshiremen but it changed for the better. Gary Ballance and Lee Hodgson established a partnership that took 110 runs off the Durham lead

It was Breese, inevitably, that broke the partnership. With his very first ball of the innings, he had Ballance caught by Borthwick, who then had Hodgson caught by Breese! Does nobody else play for Durham? The duo put the screws on, and although Breese added Wainwright’s wicket to his tally, only a dozen runs were scored off the last nine overs bowled in the day

Five wickets remain, the deficit 53. An uphill task awaits Yorkshire if they are to avoid losing for the first time to Durham in the Championship by an innings

DAY THREE REPORT

Within six overs, the not out batsmen overnight had gone with just a dozen more runs taken off the deficit. Their successors at the wickets, Gurman Randhawa and Jordan Lowe, did have thoughts of making it more respectable as they battled through over after over. They batted through nineteen overs, twelve of them maidens, eating further into the deficit. Thirty-two runs had been added when Lowe was caught, and bowled, by Breese. The same bowler, who else?, then took Randhawa’s wicket, his fourth of the innings with just five runs conceded

The coup-de-grace was administered swiftly, nine balls later, John Blain’s wicket being caught by the Richardson off Borthwick’s bowling – his match figures of 7 for 85 which many a bowler would be proud of being overshadowed by his team-mate’s - to leave Durham the winners by an innings and five runs

Next week, the Seconds play their ninth and last matches in the Trophy and Championship this season in another re-developed ground, the Swalec Stadium in Cardiff. Hopefully, there will be a better result to report.

SCORECARDS