Durham Under-15s learn from tough tour to Notts, Middlesex and Essex

Durham Under-15s learned plenty from their testing, season-opening tour.

In their opening game at Calverton CC, the Durham youngsters suffered a six-wicket defeat to Nottinghamshire.

Durham won the toss and elected to bat on a green wicket, with Adam Khan and Jonny Pears opening. Fifty runs were on the board before the first wicket fell. when Khan was bowled for 29, quickly followed by Pears being caught for 14.

A 100-run partnership steadied the ship, with Durham City player Jonathan Bushnell (58) leading the way alongside Sol Bell (36). Matthew Brown (27) and Matthew Adamson (24) contributed to Durham’s 235-8 from 50 overs.

In reply, Durham picked up two wickets in the first over, but an unbeaten 100 from 149 balls from Hassan Chaudry and 76 from Louis Bambra led Notts home with eight overs to spare. Josh Clifford bagged 3-54 for Durham.

Rain dashed Middlesex’s chances of a result in Durham’s second tour game as the weather resulted in a draw at Merchant Taylor’s School.

Middlesex inserted Durham after winning the toss, with the visitors posting 210-9 in 50 overs. Sol Bell top-scored with 89 from 118 balls, but no other Durham batsman really got going. Hemanshu Hirani bagged 3-36 for Middlesex, who had 137-2 on the board when the rain came down, with Josh De Caires (57) and Hemanshu Hirani (46) in control.

In Durham’s final tour game, Josh Rymell scored 115 from 123 balls, backed by 79 from Shoaib Shah, to give Essex a good total of 273-6 at Billericay.

Bushnell bagged 4-26 for Durham, with Sam North striking once. In reply, Patrick Cooper and Khan got Durham off to a good start before Cooper fell seven runs short of his half-century, but Khan stuck around to make 57 from 100 balls.

Wickets continued to fall, with Pears (44) the only other batsman who looked like chasing the score down. Connor Limrick and Josh Frame bagged three wickets apiece for Essex.