Durham 362 for 8 (Borthwick 136, Collingwood 101, Wagner 4-95) v Northamptonshire
Scorecard
Centuries by Scott Borthwick and Paul Collingwood helped Durham to 362 for 8 at Chester-le-Street after an opening-day washout. Bad light ended play 10 overs prematurely, but 181 runs were added in the afternoon session as relegated Northants threatened to fall apart.
After reducing Durham to 110 for 4 they allowed Borthwick and Collingwood to put on 67 in the next 10 overs and they went on to add 187 in 41. Both batsmen are in prime form, with Borthwick scoring 176 in last week's win at Lord's, where Collingwood made two half-centuries to follow his hundred at home to Nottinghamshire the previous week.
The bowlers gave them some easy pickings in the afternoon, when there were also several examples of shoddy fielding. With acting captain James Middlebrook giving himself only seven overs, Northampton's over rate read minus three. But the seamers kept running in enthusiastically and tightened up as the cloud cover increased and the ball began to swing.
After Northamptonshire had chosen to bowl, Keaton Jennings pushed forward and edged Neil Wagner to first slip. It was Jennings' third successive duck and it would have also been his third successive golden duck had he not been dropped first ball at Lord's.
Wagner also had Ben Stokes caught by Andrew Hall at slip for 13 but the New Zealand Test left-armer conceded runs at six an over until he was brought back late in the day. The new ball was due, but he swung the old one in to have Collingwood lbw, then had Chris Rushworth caught behind to finish with 4 for 95.
Borthwick reached 1000 Championship runs on 19 as he and Mark Stoneman put on 40 for the second wicket before the opener fell lbw to Azharullah. Michael Richardson took 13 balls to get off the mark and made only 11 before he was beaten by a ball from Hall which swung past the outside edge to hit off stump.
Once Borthwick and Collingwood had made their flying start, the only subsequent chance they gave Northamptonshire came when Borthwick was dropped on 82, a regulation shin-high chance to wicketkeeper Ben Duckett off one of Maurice Chambers' better deliveries. Borthwick slowed up either side of being dropped, but on 97 he eased Azharullah through backward point. He was always going to run three, but was handed four when Chambers, who had run round from third man, dived over the ball.
