Durham v Somerset. Metro Bank One-Day Cup 2023. Gosforth. 17th August.

Phoenix Rising

Toss. Somerset. Elected to field.

The festival atmosphere of outground cricket can be relaxing whatever the state of the game. It does though have its drawbacks if you are trying to follow the game from home. Not least outground livestreams can be unreliable or shaky. Southport last year was apparently an exception to that rule. At Gosforth, the steam shrivelled and died entirely before the fifth over was out. So, it was back to the old days of sitting or working in the garden, or being on holiday, and listening to the radio commentary. Days of radio memory, some as vividly recalled as days at the cricket.

My most vivid such memory of listening to cricket on the radio is of sitting in the back of the family car in the two-hour queue for the Aust Ferry in the days before the Severn Bridge was built. On summer weekends, the queue was always two hours long with signs every half hour telling you how much of your wait remained. The queue was always two hours because the first bridge across the Severn was at Gloucester and going that way took two hours. But my attention was not on the signs or the queue. My attention was on the radio, an ‘extra’ in cars in those days.

1961 was the fifth year of Test Match Special and if there was a Test Match when we were in the car the radio would be switched to the Third Programme which carried the broadcasts. 1961 was an Ashes year and the Headingly Test was in progress. And so was Fred Trueman, the nearest thing there was to a cricketing superstar in 1961. Australia had trailed on first innings but were beginning to build a lead in their second. The Ashes mattered and the game was on a knife edge. I was only eleven at the time, but I can still remember the tension biting. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, Trueman took five wickets for no runs bowling cutters and effectively won the match for England. Memories.

Somerset went to Gosforth with the memory of that crushing defeat at Bristol still raw in supporters’ minds. They made two changes, one enforced by the departure of Curtis Campher, the other in place of 17-year-old James Langridge. They were replaced by the experienced Jack Brooks and the recently turned 17, Fin Hill.

Brooks and Ned Leonard began for Somerset, and it soon became apparent that the morning conditions and the accuracy of their bowling were making batting difficult. Leonard, 21 a few days before, who has not always been as accurate as he might be in this competition and would need to be here if he was to get the most out of the conditions, held his nerve. He and Brooks bowled with the discipline needed to exploit the conditions and Durham reached just 26 for 0 at the end of the eighth over. Leonard’s performance was a relief to the Somerset mind after the fears about the impact of the Gloucestershire game on Somerset’s young players.  

In an indication of how difficult batting was, Michael Jones took 31 balls to struggle to five before Danny Lamb, replacing Leonard, had him caught behind. Durham 30 for 1 in the tenth over. From there they made progress but only slowly before Scott Borthwick was leg before wicket for 11, again to Lamb. The temporary signings of him and Campher have been godsends to Somerset in this competition. Durham were 56 for 2 in the 18^th over, only a trace over three and over, and the discipline in Somerset’s bowling was holding.

Sitting in the garden in conditions far more perfect for cricket watching than conditions at Gosforth seemed to be for batting I could feel the hope, and the tension, rising. Lamb came to the end of his spell and Sean Dixon turned to the Thomas brothers, George, 19 and without great pace, and Josh, 18 and slow left arm. They were set against the experience of Alex Lees and David Bedingham. From 340 miles away it felt like a crucial stage in the Durham innings, perhaps in the match.

Lees and Bedlingham first settled their partnership and then began to make headway. The slow Durham scoring which had marked the match thus far had matched the calmness of a virtually breezeless garden with a temperature perfect for sitting. That calmness was now disturbed as the batters began to make progress. A six and a four from Lees in an over from Josh Thomas made the ears perk up. They perked up even more when Shoaib Bashir replaced Thomas and conceded 11 in an over including another six from Lees and then one from Bedlingham in his next over. Radio commentators are not always the best at giving the score, or perhaps I am not the best at listening for it. But when you are sitting with your feet up in the garden listening to the cricket you do need to be spoon-fed the score occasionally. When eventually I did hear a score, Durham were 131 for 2 after 28 overs. That made me sit up in my chair. Lees and Bedlingham had added 55 runs at six and a half runs an over. The drift of the commentary was that batting conditions were easing. With eight wickets in hand, Durham were now on a trajectory which would take them to a final score closer to 300 than 250. Somerset’s young team were under pressure.

If there was one key moment in this match, it came in the next over. Jack Brooks had replaced George Thomas and was stemming the flow of runs from his end. The left-handed Lees turned Brooks behind square. He and Bedingham ran the first run quickly but comfortably. Suddenly, Lees turned and set off for a second. Bedingham responded, but the newly 17-year-old Fin Hill kept his calm and sent in a throw from the deep which caused Lees to hesitate and send Bedingham back. Too late. Hill’s throw was accurate enough for Rew to break the wicket with Bedingham short of his ground. A ball later Lees himself was walking from the field having been caught by George Thomas off the bowling of the returning Leonard. Lees and Bedingham had added 78 in just short of 12 overs but with Durham now 134 for 4 the match was in the balance again and the still garden air could not have felt better.

What followed was as if Somerset had become a latter-day phoenix rising from the ashes of that defeat at Bristol only four days before. Johnny Bushnell, 21, tried to hit Josh Thomas, 18, out of the ground. Instead, his middle stump lay flat and Durham were 137 for 5. Liam Trevaskis replaced Bushnell and swept Thomas through midwicket for four. He tried to repeat the stroke, connected only with the top edge and Andy Umeed took the catch. Durham 149 for 6, had lost four wickets for 15 runs in four overs and the Somerset Phoenix was flapping its wings.

Durham never recovered. Their innings limped on for another 11 overs, but there was no late revival. Somerset never relaxed their grip. The garden air was still and calm, but the radio was alive with wickets. Bas de Leede lofted George Thomas towards long on but George Bartlett took the catch. Paul Coughlin miscued a drive off Thomas and skyed the ball towards midwicket where Dickson took the catch. Lamb returned and cut a ball in to get inside a drive from George Drissell, once briefly of Somerset, to remove his off stump and Luke Robinson’s defensive stroke was quickly defeated by Josh Thomas and he departed leg before wicket.

Durham’s one-time 134 for 2 had become 181 all out in the course of 15 overs. They had failed to use five overs. They had lost eight wickets for 47 runs. It was difficult to absorb the facts however many times I turned them over in my head. It was a stunning Somerset performance even from 340 miles away. It was an astonishing performance given what had happened at Bristol on Sunday. It is true, Durham were weakened by The Hundred Draft almost as much as Somerset had been. They had lost eight players to Somerset’s nine, and so, theoretically, this was a more even contest than that against Gloucestershire. But after the overwhelming size of the Bristol defeat, and Durham’s burgeoning score at 134 for 2 the dam that burst at Bristol might so easily have burst again.

Thirty minutes is a relatively short break, and I was late back to the garden and the radio. By the time I had re-tuned, Somerset were 12 for 0 after three overs and apparently in little trouble. As the innings developed, George Thomas and Umeed seemed to be playing with a calm that matched the air around me, a calm that had deserted Durham in the second part of their innings. Batting conditions seemed to have eased considerably since the start as they are inclined to do as a day wears on. As the Somerset innings progressed the Durham bowlers did not make the best use of such conditions as there were, bowling too short if the fours which flew through the on side are any indication. Umeed did once employ his trademark drive which went wide of mid-off for four off a full ball from Robinson but such highlights as Durham were able to post after the failure of the live stream mainly show him scoring to leg.

The calm of the Somerset start was upset by a slight ripple of anxiety when two wickets fell in quick succession. Drissell turned his off spinner into Umeed, tucked him up and persuaded the umpire to raise his finger. Umeed 36 from 45 balls. An over later Thomas, neither forward nor back, was bowled by the slow left arm spin of Liam Trevaskis who was the pick of the Durham bowlers. Thomas, 33 from 30 balls. Somerset were 78 for 2 and two wickets in the space of five balls brought forth thoughts of the sudden Durham collapse, but the momentum of the match had shifted Somerset’s way. Bartlett and Rew kept their nerve and soon put the issue beyond doubt. They added 52 runs at seven and a half an over. At that rate, a remaining target of 104 with eight wickets standing soon falls away. Bartlett began against Drissell by finding the boundary twice in an over, once through midwicket and once over wide mid-on. Off the next over, Rew swept Trevaskis through midwicket for four and lofted him over wide mid-on for six. It was an emphatic response to the two wickets. Somerset were intent on maintain control.

They did not let up. In Drissell’s next over, Bartlett again cleared the wide mid-on boundary and by the time Rew was caught at long leg by Drissell off Trevaskis for 27 in 22 balls Somerset were 130 for 3 and within 52 runs of victory. Dickson maintained the assault with two fours in Drissell’s next over and the final 43 runs came in a rush over the course of six overs. Bartlett fell but by then only seven runs were needed and his 55 from 38 balls, and Somerset’s victory by six wickets with 23 overs and a ball to spare, left no doubt about Somerset’s dominance. Only when Lees and Bedingham were in full flow was there any threat from Durham. A brilliant run out from Hill ended that. It opened the door to Somerset and thereafter they never relinquished their grip.

This was a victory against the head as they would say in rugby. The loss of players to The Hundred being more evenly spread between the sides than had been the case at Bristol and winning the toss undoubtedly played a part. But Somerset had come to Gosforth on the back of one of the most crushing one-day defeats it is possible to imagine. They had won but one of their previous five games and they had lost Curtis Campher who had looked, from beyond the boundary at least, to be one of the driving forces of the side. A further defeat would have surprised no one. It is perhaps a measure of the Club at the moment that this, largely young, team bounced back from Bristol so quickly with such stunning effect. A Phoenix rising indeed.

Result. Durham 181 (45/50 overs) A.Z. Lees 63 (89 balls), D.J. Lamb 3-25 (econ 2.78), J.F. Thomas 3-40 (4.00). Somerset 182 for 4 (26.5 overs) G.A. Bartlett 55 (38), L. Trevaskis 3-43 (4.78). Somerset won by six wickets. Durham 0 points. Somerset 2 points.