Spin and seam make for remarkable day

Durham 189 (Hickey 36*, van der Merwe 4-59) and 130 for 5 (Stoneman 57) need 46 more runs to beat Somerset 184 (Wood 3-24, Rushworth 3-47) and 180 (Davies 49, van der Merwe 47, Onions 4-50) Scorecard

Durham need a further 46 runs to not only defeat Somerset but to improve their chances of winning the Specsavers’ County Championship after another day of extraordinary action.

However, they are making heavy weather of matters at Taunton. Chasing 176 to win, in their second innings, the visitors reached 130 for 5 at the close.

It has been a remarkable game during which Durham’s seamers have taken 18 of the 20 Somerset wickets to fall and the Somerset spinners, Roelof van der Merwe and Jack Leach, have helped themselves to all but three of the 15 Durham wickets to tumble.

“It was one of those mornings where we hardly played and missed. Every good good ball got the edge,” Matthew Maynard, the Somerset coach, said. “The first ball straightened on Marcus and he nicked it. One has come back to the skipper, quite sharply and then, Hildy got a good ball. They were got out by decent balls.

“However, to be still in the game tonight from 33 for 6 is a great effort from the lads and especially our low middle order.

“It has been an absorbing game of cricket. Fair play to them, they have utilised …

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