1 week Ago
Durham were beaten on the final day at Trent Bridge despite their batsman, Colin Ackermann, having scored a century in both innings of the game. The North-Easterners will attempt to secure a first win of the summer when they host Warwickshire in their opening home game, which begins at Banks Homes Riverside on Friday morning. And while Lees accepts his side’s opening-game defeat has highlighted areas for improvement, there will be no kneejerk reaction to losing to Notts.
“It was disappointing to lose,” said the Durham captain, who has replaced Scott Borthwick as skipper of the red-ball side. “When you lose the toss on a bowler-friendly wicket in April you are always going to be up against it, and the way we batted in the first innings was pretty encouraging. “We didn’t bowl horrendously badly in their first innings.
I think there were 70 plays and misses in their innings. Was it a 580 pitch? Maybe not. But over the course of the four days, they outplayed us and, sometimes, you just have to give the opposition some credit.
“But it is the first game of the season. The last time we lost the first game of the season, we won Division Two with no one anywhere near us, so the first game is not the be-all and end-all.” MORE SPORT : Durham were in trouble from the moment they were dismissed for 378 in the first innings of the game.
Nottinghamshire’s reply of 579 meant the hosts took a 201-run lead into the second innings, and while Durham started strongly second time around, with Ackermann to the fore for the second time in the game, an explosive spell of fast bowling from Josh Tongue ultimately proved their undoing. England hopeful Tongue, who was making his Nottinghamshire debut, took four wickets in 12 balls to rip the heart out of Durham’s second innings and leave his side with a victory target of just 89 runs. They knocked them off for the loss of two wickets, meaning Durham were only able to take five points from their opening game of the campaign.
“Having been 200 behind on first innings, we would have been happy to come away with a draw,” said Lees. “I thought Colin Ackermann and Graham Clark played amazingly well, but then that spell from Josh Tongue just blew the game wide open. “He is a bowler with that match-winning capability, which is why Notts signed him from Worcestershire and why he has played international cricket.
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