County Championship: Durham round off excellent season by crushing Leicestershire

Matt Parkinson (left) has taken 170 wickets in 53 first-class matches

Durham sealed an emphatic victory over Leicestershire by an innings and 141 runs, ensuring County Championship Division Two champions ended their magnificent campaign on the highest of notes at Seat Unique Riverside.

The home side required 10 wickets to secure their seventh victory of the campaign, and they needed only 42.5 overs to tear through the Leicestershire batting line-up.

The Durham bowlers shared the wickets around the attack as Vishwa Fernando and Matt Parkinson claimed three wickets apiece, while Matthew Potts, Ben Raine and Jonathan Bushnell also struck.

The Foxes briefly held up the Durham charge in the afternoon session as Will Davis scored his maiden first-class fifty in a stand worth 78 with Ben Cox.

But the hosts closed out a special season with a dominant win, taking 24 points from the contest and ending with a mammoth total of 233.

Leicestershire resumed the final day 13 without loss, requiring another 301 runs to force the home side to bat again.

Rishi Patel added only six runs to his overnight total before he fended a rising delivery from Potts to Ollie Robinson before Sam Evans picked out Matt Parkinson at fine leg handing the England seamer inroads into the Foxes' line-up.

Raine kept up the intensity at the other end and passed the outside edge before he finally prised out Umar Amin, who missed a straight one and lost his off-stump. The strike was Raine's 60th of the campaign, a new career-best for a single season for the 32-year-old.

Fernando found his rhythm to wrap the pads of Louis Kimber on three occasions. After having a good lbw shout turned down, he returned with his next delivery to bowl the right-hander with a beauty. Fernando then skittled Lewis Hill to pave the way into the Leicestershire tail within 90 minutes.

In the final game of his loan spell, Parkinson came into the attack and struck twice in his first over. Tom Scriven paid the price for his aggressive approach advancing down the track and was stumped by Robinson before Parkinson turned one through Chris Wright's gate to put Durham on the brink.

However, Leicestershire showed resolve after lunch. Davis displayed resilience with the bat to take on Potts and company, scoring his maiden first-class fifty from 58 balls, including six fours and a six.

He shared a stand worth 78 for the ninth wicket before Fernando returned with another rocket to uproot his off-stump for 58. The Sri Lanka international ended the game with figures of 7-80.

The end came quickly as Parkinson claimed his third wicket by finding Hull's outside edge to bowl out Leicestershire for 173, capping a dominant performance from the hosts.

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Durham captain Scott Borthwick:

"It's my fourth trophy with the club and third in the County Championship. It feels a bit more special with me being captain getting us back into Division One.

"We're a big club and we deserve to be in Division One. With the talent of the players we have, we should be in Division One.

"We've got some good young players that have gone through the roof with their ability like Brydon Carse and Matthew Potts, two lads that have represented England over the last few weeks. We knew that we were going to be a good bowling unit with them and Ben Raine, who's a prolific Championship bowler.

"We also have talented batters, but it was all about going out there to do it and we've smashed it this season."

Leicestershire captain Lewis Hill:

"If you said to us at the start of the year we would come fourth in the County Championship, challenging to go up and win the One-Day Cup, I would have said we'd have had a pretty good year.

"In my first year as club captain the lads have given me their full backing. They've been phenomenal all year.

"It has not been easy at stages this season, but that's cricket. There are ups and downs as you go through the summer.

"We've had a tough September. But from the highs of the One-Day Cup final win, that took a lot out of us as people and cricketers. A lot of us were stiff and sore for a few days after that. On the whole, we have to be happy with where we are and there's room for improvement next year."

Report supplied by ECB Reporters' Network.