Durham take advantage on day 1

Durham made the most of bowling friendly conditions at Seat Unique Riverside on Day 1 of the LV Insurance County Championship.

After winning the toss and asking the visitors to bat, Matthew Potts and Ben Raine bowled a lengthy opening spell interspersed with a rain delay to leave Sussex 47-3 at the lunch interval.

Wickets continued to fall after the break, Paul Coughlin chipping away at Sussex’s young batting line up.

Lower order resistance from Sussex saw the score tick past 150 with 18-year-old Charlie Tear making 26 in difficult circumstances, before Oliver Gibson bowled Sean Hunt to end the innings on 162, Potts and Coughlin leading the way with three wickets each.

Hunt then got his revenge by pinning Sean Dickson LBW for 14, as the light constantly threatened to take the players off, and eventually succeeded at 5:25 with Durham 54-1.

It was the perfect toss to win for Scott Borthwick, with the floodlights being on from start of play to close and it was a no brainer to send Sussex into bat.

Durham made a steady start to their 1st innings before Dickson was pinned to a Hunt delivery which kept low.

Skipper Scott Borthwick and Michael Jones then saw them through to 54-1, when the umpires took the sides from the field for bad light and ended the day’s play.