{"id":550521,"date":"2026-04-25T20:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T20:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/550521\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T20:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T20:08:10","slug":"county-championship-matthew-potts-rescues-durham-against-lancashire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/550521\/","title":{"rendered":"County Championship: Matthew Potts rescues Durham against Lancashire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Durham were rocked by the loss of Sam Conners in the morning, after he pulled out of the game with an abdominal injury and was replaced by James Minto.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">They went into the morning with the aim to dislodge unbeaten centurion Marcus Harris and it was Raine who finally got him for a sublime 146 as the Australian edged to second slip.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Durham then cleaned up the Lancashire tail quickly, as Potts dismissed both Mitch Stanley (one) and Anderson for a duck in the same over.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Their reply began with a testing period against Anderson and Bailey under the lights and the visitors got off to a great start as the former bowled the dangerous Ben McKinney for three.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Anderson then struck again as he got one to swing into Alex Lees&#8217; pads and the Durham skipper was given lbw for eight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Emilio Gay and David Bedingham joined forces at the crease, with Durham desperately needing a partnership, but that wasn&#8217;t to be as Stanley got the latter lbw for 17.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Gay and Graham Clark managed to get their side to lunch without further loss, but the visitors were celebrating a wicket once again after the break, with Clark (11) edging a George Balderson delivery to slip.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Lancashire were then hit by an injury blow themselves, with spin bowling all-rounder Arav Shetty sustaining a hand injury and wicketkeeper George Bell replaced him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Gay was keeping his team&#8217;s hopes of getting close to Lancashire&#8217;s score intact, but the visitors kept on cranking up the pressure with a probing line and length.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">However, when it appeared Durham were steadying the ship, Gay (41) and Kasey Aldridge fell in successive balls, both edging Bailey deliveries to slip.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ollie Robinson (32) then fell lbw to Stanley to deepen Durham&#8217;s woes, as they were still some way off avoiding the follow-on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Raine offered some resistance in his 37 but he was then part of a calamitous run-out with Potts, as Matty Hurst&#8217;s direct hit slammed into the stumps when Raine was well out of his ground.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Injury replacement Minto joined Potts for his first action of the game and he looked the part with the bat alongside Potts, helping Durham pass 200 as they continued to frustrate Lancashire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">However, Minto&#8217;s defiant knock came to an end on 19, as he edged a delivery from former teammate Paul Coughlin straight to the slip cordon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Durham then avoided the follow-on and picked up a batting bonus point, with Potts passing fifty when an airy cut shot flew to the boundary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Parkinson, who was dropped on six, ably assisted Potts during a final wicket stand worth 78 that was Durham&#8217;s biggest in their innings, and the day concluded when Bailey got Potts lbw for a vital 66.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Report by ECB Reporters&#8217; Network, supported by Rothesay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Durham were rocked by the loss of Sam Conners in the morning, after he pulled out of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-550521","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}