Durham 376 for 7 (Collingwood 127, Steel 72, Coughlin 68) v Derbyshire
Paul Collingwood is scoring heavily late in his career © Getty Images
The twilight of Paul Collingwood‘s career is proving longer and brighter than most, underlined by his third Specsavers County Championship century of the season.
The Durham captain’s form is in stark contrast to that of his potential successor, Keaton Jennings, who departed to the first ball of the match against Derbyshire at Chester-le-Street.
There were three more wickets for Hardus Viljoen, but after dispensing with the toss it turned into a day of toil for the visitors, especially when Paul Coughlin showed his power in contributing 68 to a stand of 130. He fell lbw to Viljoen just before the close, when Durham were 376 for seven with Collingwood on 127.
The floodlights were on at the start and end of the day, otherwise there was little encouragement for a Derbyshire attack in which Harry Podmore, on loan from Middlesex, was making his debut.
He was accurate and got past the bat a few times but came under fire from Coughlin when the second new ball was taken.
There was also another sound contribution of 72 from Cameron Steel following his 224 in Durham’s last match at Leicester. But it was Collingwood’s day after striding in at 94 for three just before lunch.
Other than having to sway out of the way of one sharp lifter from Viljoen, he was scarcely troubled as he accumulated steadily, largely through well-timed textbook strokes and leg-side nudges.
When Derbsyhire turned to the medium pace of Alex Hughes his second ball was casually paddled to fine leg to take Collingwood to 50 off 77 balls. He reached his 100 off 150 when he turned Viljoen to fine leg for his 11th four.
Viljoen began with a short, wide loosener, which Jennings tried to slap away, only to edge to wicketkeeper Harvey Hosein.
Tom Latham scored only five off his first 36 balls, but then cut Tony Palladino for two fours before shaping to drive and having his off stump rattled. Viljoen nipped one back to bowl Jack Burnham for nine during a second spell in which he also troubled Steel. He was missed at third slip by Matt Critchley off on 38, and it was a thicker edge wide of the slips which gave him his ninth four and took him to his half-century off 81 balls.
Left-armer Luis Reece broke a fourth-wicket stand of 53 when Steel drove at a ball slanted across him and edged low to Wayne Madsen at slip. Michael Richardson edged Viljoen behind for 20 and Ryan Pringle made 19 before hooking Palladino straight to long leg.
Pringle’s exit left Durham in danger of under-achieving on 217 for six, but Coughlin eased to 33 against the old ball then cut loose against the new one.
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo