Hurst digs in for Lancashire with Durham on top

Matty Hurst has one hundred and four 50s for Lancashire this season

Vitality County Championship Division One, Chester-le-Street (day one)

Lancashire 177-6: Hurst 74*, Bohannon 49; Raine 4-23

Durham: Yet to bat

Bonus points: Durham 2, Lancashire 0.

Match scorecard

Durham’s Ben Raine took four wickets to deepen Lancashire’s relegation fears on the first day of their County Championship Division One match at the Riverside.

Raine made the most of bowler-friendly conditions to help reduce Keaton Jennings’ side to 177-6 after 78 overs on a day that was shortened by morning rain.

Lancashire’s plight could have been vastly worse had Matty Hurst not made a fine 74 not out, while Josh Bohannon added 49.

Raine was well supported by Matthew Potts, who took 2-36, while Chemar Holder endured a testing first day as a Durham bowler, finishing with 0-53 from his eight overs.

Raine had Luke Wells caught behind by Ollie Robinson off the first ball of the game and then produced a magnificent delivery which nipped away and bowled captain Jennings for nine in the ninth over.

Bohannon tucked into three wayward overs from Holder before losing his third-wicket partner, Venkatesh Iyer, with the total on 49 when the Indian all-rounder was caught behind off Potts for seven.

Hurst survived for 26 balls before scoring his first run but Lancashire’s closest shaves came at the other end, where Bohannon edged Potts and survived a confident appeal for caught behind off Raine before finally falling for 49 when a thin-edged catch to Robinson gave the Durham seamer his third wicket.

Lancashire got to tea on 96-4 but soon lost George Bell for seven when he pulled Potts straight to Holder at midwicket.

Hurst reached his fourth Championship half-century off 88 balls, but the visitors soon lost their sixth wicket when George Balderson edged a drive off Raine to Colin Ackermann at second slip and departed for 10.

Hurst and Tom Hartley added an unbroken 39 to ensure Lancashire did not suffer any further damage before the close, although they still need 73 runs to secure their first batting point since 1 July after successive innings defeats to Surrey and Hampshire.

Report supplied by the ECB Reporters' Network