Essex pad out their Group One lead as lbws abound in three-day thumping of Durham – T20 IPL 2024

One of the world’s most boring records takes Essex closer to shot at title defence

Peter Siddle appeals for one of 19 lbws in the match, as Essex close in at the Riverside

Essex 182 and 301 (Wheater 81, ten Doeschate 55, Raine 5-64) beat Durham 99 (Cook 4-38, Porter 3-27, Siddle 3-29) and 189 (Lees 48, Porter 4-31, Siddle 3-47) by 195 runs

As far as the County Championship is concerned, the relevance of Essex’s 189-win victory over Durham is that, with time running out, it has energised the defence of their title. But the ramifications go far wider, especially for cricket statisticians, who can be guaranteed to be in a stage of high excitement after the contest set a new record for the number of lbws in a first-class match in England.

As many as 19 lbws were awarded by umpires David Millns and James Middlebrook at Chester-le-Street and it should be said in these days of video replays that, for the neutral observer, the overwhelming majority looked bang to rights.

That England (and Wales) record was beaten on a glorious sun-drenched evening in England’s most northerly first-class cricketing outpost when Jack Burnham, a former England U19 batsman suffering hard times, was struck in front by the former Australian international Peter Siddle. Burnham’s meaningful shrug appeared to be somewhat defeatist after Durham had battled grimly for much of the day against the spectre of near-inevitable defeat.

To discover a first-class match with more lbws it was necessary, according to the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians, to turn to Guyana v Jamaica last year, which jointly holds the all-time record along with the West Indies v Pakistan Test in Guyana in 2011, both of them played at Providence Stadium. It is hard to suppress the ignoble thought that Guyana and Chester-le-Street are blood brothers, being the Test venues that many in authority would prefer to ignore.

Ultimately this contest had to settle, globally, for joint second spot, alongside two India first-class matches – Patiala’s match against Delhi in 1953-54 and a more recent clash between Uttar Pradesh and Railways in Lucknow four years ago.

Quite whether the Maharajah of Patiala, the last of the nine Maharajas, was so full of statistical anticipation after Delhi’s win (a world record at the time) sadly goes unrecorded, but it is likely it passed him by, on accounts of it being Christmas and the World Wide Web not quite being a thing. Interestingly, he did not bat in the first innings, but claimed a half-century batting at No. 11 second time around.

Six years ago, the Daily Express suggested that Gareth Sanders, a cleaning company manager from Bristol, had broken the world’s most boring world record by ironing for more than 80 hours. If you think that’s boring, imagine how the person felt who had to check that he was doing it properly.

Statisticians can cavil all they like, but for two sessions this England (and Wales) record moved closer in an atmosphere of unremitting tedium. Durham needed 385 to win, they had never successfully chased more than 318 when they beat Nottinghamshire 20 years ago, and they had never conceded a chase of 335 here. But they had a new captain, new resolve and a relaid square on which Derbyshire had blocked out for a draw in April by losing only five wickets on the final day.

Full report to follow.

Peter Siddle

Sam Cook

Essex

Durham

Essex vs Durham

County Championship

David Hopps writes on county cricket for ESPNcricinfo @davidkhopps

Source: ESPN Crickinfo

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