Durham beat Worcestershire by six wickets inside two days in a bowler-dominated County Championship match at New Road.
After 16 wickets fell on the first day, 14 fell in the first two sessions of the second on a pitch which the seamers would like to carry round in their kit bag.
Durham trailed by 26 on first innings after they were bowled out for 136, with Ben Allison taking 3-26 and Tom Taylor 3-36, but George Drissell’s resolute 31 proved priceless as Worcestershire were skittled for 81 in the afternoon session.
Ben Raine left the home side 3-3 and they never recovered, Raine ending with 4-20r 20 and Codi Yusuf 4-26.
Durham faced a victory target of 107, no formality on such a pitch, but reached 108-4, thanks principally to Ben McKinney’s 34 from 58 balls.
After resuming on the second morning on 55-4, Durham hit immediate further turbulence with two wickets in the fourth over, from Taylor.
Jack Blatherwick edged to wicketkeeper Gareth Roderick and Will Rhodes did the same to end 111 minutes of defiance for 17.
Drissell and Graham Clark dug in to add 47 in 20 overs before Allison took three wickets in 13 balls.
Clark played on, Raine edged to second slip and Drissell was taken at point, but number 11 Jake Ball made 13, a very handy cameo in the context of the match, before Yusuf edged Jacob Duffy behind.
Worcestershire’s second innings lurched straight into crisis as Raine struck three times in his first two overs.
His third ball clipped Roderick’s off-stump, his ninth went to second slip via Jake Libby’s edge and his 11th pinned Rob Jones lbw.
Six innings in this match brought Roderick, Libby and Jones a combined 18 runs.
Henry Nicholls and Adam Hose chiselled out 40 but the most authoritative shot of the day, Hose’s cut four off Ball, was immediately followed by his dismissal when he tickled the next ball behind.
Taylor followed, dubiously adjudged lbw to Yusuf and when Kiwi debutant Nicholls fell lbw to Ball having gritted out 25 in 72 minutes, Worcestershire were 50-6.
Yusuf hit Brett D’Oliveira’s middle stump and, after Raine trapped Matthew Waite lbw, the South African finished off the innings with wickets in successive balls as Allison played on and Duffy skied a slog.
Chasing 108 in two days and a session, Durham lost Alex Lees, bowled by Duffy, in the third over but McKinney and Will Rhodes added 35, almost a third of the target, before Rhodes edged an unplayable ball from Taylor.
Colin Ackermann fell lbw to Waite but, with such a small target, Worcestershire’s bowlers needed dot balls as well as wickets and they could not find enough.
McKinney drove Waite to mid-off but Robinson and Clark saw their side home with an assertive unbroken stand of 36 in 41 balls.
It was a match for batters to forget but the biggest losers were the Worcestershire fans, denied any cricket to watch on Sunday with the weather due to be glorious.
