Durham fight back after Booth blitz for Bears

Warwickshire's Michael Booth followed up his 3-72 in the first innings with 4-66 in the second

Rothesay County Championship Division One, Banks Homes Riverside (day three)

Durham 387 & 276-8 dec: Raine 81, Bedingham 45; Booth 4-66, Bamber 2-49

Warwickshire 325: Smith 79, Booth 58; Hogg 3-60, Doggett 3-71 & 12-0:

Warwickshire (5 pts) trail Durham (6 pts) by 326 with 10 wickets standing

Match scorecard

Ben Raine's vital knock led a Durham fightback with the bat after a four-wicket blitz from Warwickshire's Michael Booth had given his side the upper hand on day three of their County Championship encounter.

After frustrating Durham in the morning, the Bears were bowled out for 325, 62 runs behind.

Durham's second innings started in a serene manner, before a four-wicket spell from Booth either side of lunch swung the momentum the visitors' way.

However, Raine had other ideas, hitting his 20th first-class half-century as he combined well with David Bedingham for a partnership worth 88.

After declaring on 276-8, that helped the hosts set a target of 339 and . Warwickshire finished on 12-0.

Warwickshire kicked off the day on 287-8, with Booth unbeaten on 50 and, along with Ethan Bamber, they took the Bears past 300 to a second batting point.

Potts finally got a first innings wicket when Bamber departed for 21, edging to second slip before Brendan Doggett bowled Vishwa Fernando.

Alex Lees and first innings centurion Ben McKinney began well. But Lees was lbw to Booth, who then got Emilio Gay the same way.

Booth then had another shortly after lunch when he produced a pearler of a delivery to knock out two of Colin Ackermann's stumps and in the same over Ollie Robinson edged to second slip.

Bamber then got former Bears skipper Will Rhodes lbw for 18 but Raine continued to attack, pulling a short ball from Fernando to the boundary before, the Bears picked up the vital wicket of McKinney for 33, feathering Barnardto keeper Kai Smith.

That brought in Bedingham, assisted by Ackermann as a runner following a first-innings toe injury. The South African nonetheless played some delightful shots and had no problems finding the boundary.

After an inventive ramp shot which went past third man, Raine was dropped by Bears skipper Alex Davies at slip on 55, off Taz Ali. However, Bedingham earned Bamber his second wicket of the innings when he picked out Dan Mousley at deep square for a well-made 45.

Raine and Potts took the score over 300, but Raine departed for 81 to spinner Yates, hit on the pads while attempting a sweep.

Potts and Daniel Hogg continued to add vital runs as they set up a declaration, which came with four overs left in the day, but openers Yates and Davies saw the visitors through to close.

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Durham paceman Ben Raine told BBC Radio Newcastle:

"We were in a bit of trouble. We were under a bit of pressure, but we've played enough cricket here to know it's a pretty good pitch, pretty flat, so we knew we could get through a couple of spells and get runs later on.

"We had a feeling that we didn't quite have enough and Pottsy played a few shots and Hoggy . Whit the spinner over the top.

"We scored 30 runs to take us where we said we wanted to be. It's enough runs. We know we can bowl a team out on this pitche've done it a number of times."

Warwickshire's Michael Booth:

"I had two overs before lunch and managed to get the two then. My tail was up going into lunch and then after lunch, I started off again and managed to get another two.

"When we had them five down we'd liked to have squeezed and maybe get them eight or nine down before tea but obviously, as it shows, the pitch and an older ball doesn't really do much for the bowlers.

"The declaration is exciting. If we just bat a normal day, it should be in our favour. We'll wait and see what comes but we're just going to bat normally and see where it takes us."