Collins Swinging In The Rain
Published 23 April 2008
After a promising start from the Surrey bowlers, Durham recovered to 144 for three at the close of day one. Pedro Collins took two early wickets to reduce Durham to 13 for three, but half-centuries from Mark Stoneman and Dale Benkenstein frustrated Surrey.
The first away LV County Championship match of the season saw Matthew Nicholson make his first start of the season, replacing James Benning, after overcoming a virus. Otherwise the team was the same as the one that played so well against Lancashire last week.The highlights of an even first day can be seen on Surrey TV.
Surrey got off to a dream start and were gifted the wicket of the dangerous Michael Di Venuto in the first over. Mark Stoneman dropped the ball down at his feet, called Di Venuto for a quick single, but Pedro Collins was quicker at throwing the ball at the stumps and Durham were one for one. Three overs later and the players left the field for rain that stalled play until 3:40 pm.
After the restart it was Collins who immediately picked up two more wickets. The first was Kyle Coetzer, who was brilliantly caught by an agile James Ormond at third slip for one. Two overs later and South African Neil McKenzie was next to go for just three, LBW to a full in-swinging delivery, the score was 13 for three. Although the pitch was not offering much in the way of seam movement Collins was finding a lot of swing and creating constant problems for the batsmen. A few streaky boundaries from Dale Benkenstein took Durham to 53 for three at tea.
After tea Durham’s decision to bat first was justified as the batting became easier. The Durham pair of Benkenstein and Stoneman rode their luck a little with Chris Jordan putting down a relatively simple caught and bowled chance from Stoneman when he was in the thirties. Surrey lost their early discipline and gave a few scoring opportunities as the forth wicket partnership went past fifty. Both the Durham batsman reached half-centuries and looked comfortable at the crease in the evening sunshine. Durham reached 144 for three at the close with Collins being the pick of the bowlers with two for 49.
During the rain delay Surrey TV caught up with Surrey's Performance Analyst Steven Rudkin in the latest episode of the Surrey TV podcast.Click here to listen.
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