County Championship: Durham need 108 more runs to beat Essex

Sam Cook equalled his career-best first-class score and then took two top-order Durham wickets

Durham need 108 more runs to beat Essex with seven wickets in hand after a rollercoaster day three at Chelmsford.

Essex led by just 45 overnight on 208-6, but career-best scores from Paul Walter (77), Ben Allison (52) and Sam Cook (37) helped them to 330 all out, Brydon Carse taking 5-82.

Set 168 to win, Durham lost Will Young and Alex Lees for nought, and David Bedingham for 18 as they fell to 20-3.

Scott Borthwick and Jack Burnham then took the visitors to 60-3 at stumps.

Essex resumed with a slender lead and the chances of a first Championship home defeat since September 2018 increased when Ben Raine trapped Simon Harmer with the third ball of the day without adding to the overnight score.

Yet the hosts continued to grind runs out, anchored by Walter who nudged the lead into three figures shortly before Carse took his edge and the diving Stuart Poynter pouched a sharp catch.

In an afternoon session shortened to 19 overs, as the players left the field while the funeral of Prince Philip took place, Durham failed to take a wicket as Allison moved to a patient maiden first-class fifty off 144 balls.

Carse took another key wicket when he trapped Allison just four balls after the resumption, and quickly completed a five-wicket haul by having Cook caught behind by Poynter to set Durham a more testing target than they would have expected.

Lifted by the stubborn resistance of the tail, the Essex attack piled on the pressure, Cook clipping Young's off-stump for a first-ball duck and Jamie Porter trapping Lees lbw without scoring.

Cook then removed Bedingham as the hosts, who were dismissed for 96 in their first innings, gave themselves a fighting chance of an unlikely win.

However, Durham captain Borthwick battled to the close, eking out nine runs from 88 balls, while Burnham compiled a more fluent unbeaten 31 to set up an intriguing final day.