| Vitality County Championship Division One, Edgbaston (day three) |
| Warwickshire 698-3 dec: Davies 256, Yates 191, Rhodes 178* |
| Durham 517: Lees 145, Raine 96; Yates 4-137 & 12-2 |
| Durham (3 pts) trail Warwickshire (7 pts) by 169 runs with eight wickets left |
Durham face an innings defeat after being made to follow on by Warwickshire at Edgbaston.
Last season’s promoted Division Two champions made a valiant attempt to reply to the Bears’ 698-3 declared, particularly in a rearguard action seventh-wicket stand of 122 between Ben Raine (73) and Graham Clark (76).
But they fell short to be bowled out for 517, and closed on 12-2 second time around, still needing a further 169 to make the Bears bat again.
Durham resumed on 178-3 still trailing Warwickshire by 520 runs.
After last week’s complete abandonment against Hampshire at Chester-le-Street, they were still 12 runs short of claiming their first bonus point of the season when they lost their first wicket of the morning.
Ollie Robinson went for 60, picking out Ed Barnard with a loose shot off Danny Briggs.
Despite Durham old boy Chris Rushworth being off the pitch nursing a calf injury, the Bears then made a second breakthrough with the new ball.
Former skipper Will Rhodes quickly struck when he removed Alex Lees’ off stump – to leave Durham 305-5 at lunch.
Brydon Carse then followed as Barnard got in on the wicket-taking act, the sixth different Bears bowler to claim a scalp.
But Raine then helped steady the ship over the next 33 overs until Yates turned one sharply past Clark’s attempted paddle to leg to win an lbw decision, en route to the previously only occasional off-spinner’s career-best 4-137.
Three balls later Yates took a smart low return catch from Callum Parkinson and, when Matt Potts skied Dan Mousley to deep mid-wicket, Durham were still 32 short of the follow-on, with 10 overs batting second time around.
Olly Hannon-Dalby took just five balls to dislodge first-innings century-maker Lees into a loose drive edged to wicketkeeper Michael Burgess before Yates had Borthwick caught behind to add a fifth wicket to Friday’s 191 runs.
The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians believe Durham’s total of 517 is the highest total made by a team then asked to follow on.
They also report that Warwickshire’s top three set a new first-class record by all scoring at least 178 – the previous record was 147.
