After 10 years in different divisions, Essex and Durham make up for lost time

NICK FRIEND AT CHELMSFORD: On their last meeting in red-ball cricket, Essex were relegated from the County Championship's top tier. A decade on, Scott Borthwick starred on an all-action day that saw 18 wickets fall

Plenty has happened since Durham and Essex last faced one another in first-class cricket; this is their first meeting since September 2010. And on the proof of a madcap April Thursday, they should get together more often.

In the intervening period between this encounter and their last, both sides have won County Championship titles, but that – twinned with a shared commitment to championing local talent – is just about where the comparisons end.

At Chelmsford, this has been a golden era: Essex are the best team in the country, led by the captaincy of Tom Westley, the quiet aura of Alastair Cook, the excellence of Simon Harmer, the consistency of Jamie Porter and the timelessness of Ryan ten Doeschate.

For Durham, this is a big season – the third in a five-year plan as the revival continues following a bitter relegation imposed for financial reasons at the end of 2016. For the first time in the years since that nadir, they look an imposing side, topped and tailed with a melange of quality and experience: a stable of batsmen including Alex Lees, Will Young, Scott Borthwick and David Bedingham alongside an armada of seamers marshalled, as it has been through good times and bad, by Chris Rushworth.

Don't get out: The story of the first ball of the county season

It goes without saying that relegation – and the subsequent exodus and points deduction – was a sliding doors moment: Essex won the second tier in the same year and swapped places with Durham, who have not been seen since in Division One.

But the rejigging of the domestic structure has opened the door for James Franklin’s team – with Marcus North as overseer-in-chief – to test itself against the club that effectively claimed Durham’s mantle as a paragon for the domestic game: a production line of England cricketers, frequent competitors for trophies, an outfit at one with its community.

That third point has never wavered in the northeast: Durham are providing their members with a range of additional benefits this year as a token of thanks for their loyalty through the pandemic and beyond.

^{Will Young made his debut for Durham}

On the first two objectives, this display was a symbol of the progress made since those darkest days, even if Essex fought back late on as dusk set in to ensure their first innings deficit shouldn’t get out of hand on Friday morning.

But Durham's overall performance supported an opinion held in several quarters that they might just be the team to push Essex closest in a wide-open group: well organised and nicely balanced, with a backbone of potential match-winners and Cameron Bancroft still to arrive.

After being asked to bowl first by their hosts, they ended proceedings with a first innings lead – built on a hundred for Borthwick, who played beautifully on a day when just five men reached double figures and 18 wickets fell. It was a first century for his boyhood county since May 2016 and a day he won’t forget.

There was a time when this might not have happened again, when he left Durham for Surrey five seasons ago – a sad departure that rather reflected a desperately difficult time for the English game’s youngest first-class county. But the prodigal son has returned – as captain, no less, to a happier camp. And having managed his troops with the ball in bowling Essex out for 96 – their lowest home total since 2014 – he swept and drove to reach a fine landmark, before being bowled by a delivery from Dan Lawrence that scuttled through his defences.

Rebuilding Durham: The revival after the nadir

Earlier on, all eyes had been on Brydon Carse, already recognised by England Lions and – on this evidence – pushing for further honours. When he committed his future to the county shortly after Tim Bostock arrived as the club’s chief executive in 2018, it was a sign of the trajectory of Durham’s recovery. They had seen Borthwick, Paul Coughlin, Keaton Jennings, Graham Onions and Mark Stoneman move on to extend their ambitions elsewhere in the preceding winters, so Carse’s decision to remain represented an important shift in mentality.

And in the 25-year-old fast bowler, there is genuine hope that Durham might have located another seamer with international potential, adding to a list that this century has featured Steve Harmison, Liam Plunkett and Mark Wood.

Here, he bowled with a level of hostility rarely seen in the county game: the wickets of ten Doeschate and Sam Cook came from sharp bouncers. In a particularly brutal passage of play, he struck Adam Wheater twice on the body.

^{Matt Salisbury took two wickets against the county where he started his career}

From the other end, Rushworth was Rushworth: impeccable in line and length, taking the early wickets of Nick Browne and Alastair Cook, before adding Ben Allison later on. He conceded just 13 runs in 11 overs, eight of which were maidens. Onions’ record as the county’s all-time leading first-class wicket-taker is well within sight – barring any mishaps, it will be his by early May.

For several reasons, Rushworth will be a fitting successor, not least because he has been there through it all. Now, though, he is heading a new generation, still running in as county cricket’s relentless metronome. He never left his sixpence, only adjusting his angle of attack once he had seen off Essex’s left-handed opening pair.

On his example, Ben Raine and Matt Salisbury followed. Salisbury, who took his 100th first-class wicket last week against Nottinghamshire, was born in Chelmsford and began life at Essex, before finding a home at Durham via the MCC Young Cricketers pathway. He accounted for Westley, in fine touch after a double hundred against Worcestershire, and Lawrence, currently in possession of an England middle order berth.

Lawrence was just 13 when these teams last faced one another in the County Championship, while Westley was just three years on from his first-class debut. Plenty was different: Max Osborne, Michael Comber, Chris Wright and Tony Palladino made up Essex’s bowling attack, and Durham were reigning champions, with Michael di Venuto and Dale Benkenstein the focal points of a belligerent, dominant spine.

That match petered out to a draw and Essex were relegated.

Eleven years on, the landscape has shifted and Chelmsford is a fortress like few others. But with Borthwick and Rushworth to the fore, Durham look a mightily competitive side once again.

Subscribe today and receive The Cricketer’s centenary issue – six issues for £19.21. Click here