Young Irish pace bowler Peter Chase proved the hero for Durham on the final day of their County Championship match against Nottinghamshire as the 20-year-old from Malahide claimed a five-wicket haul on his first-class debut to set up a 54-run win at Chester-le-Street.
The result seriously dented the visitors Division One title ambitions while greatly easing Durham’s relegation worries.
In taking five for 64, Chase reduced Nottinghamshire to 285 for nine and prompted lunch to be delayed. But in the extra half hour Durham missed two chances to catch last man Gary Keedy and Chris Read moved on to 47 before John Hastings bowled him in the last over before the break.
Resuming on 197 for four, still needing 178, Nottinghamshire progressed easily enough in the first 40 minutes.
The only scare came when Riki Wessels almost played on against Chris Rushworth when trying to withdraw his bat after adding two to his overnight 77.
The need to save some of his opening bowlers’ energy for the new ball after 80 overs prompted Paul Collingwood to rest them after four overs each.
It looked a gamble to bring on Chase but in his second over Wessels fell for the bait, pulling a catch straight to Gordon Muchall at deep midwicket to depart for 90.
James Franklin had played some languid strokes in reaching 39 but certainly did not give the impression that he was prepared to grind it out.
In the next over he pushed lazily forward to a ball from Paul Coughlin which nipped in slightly and had him lbw. The New Zealander departed with a long stare at umpire Jeff Evans.
Read was quickly under way with a four through backward point off Chase.
He then on-drove Coughlin to the boundary, the ball disappearing under the rolled-up sheeting used to cover the square. It took four players several minutes to locate it and when they queried its condition the umpires changed it.
This may have worked in Durham’s favour as Chase, who was hurriedly registered two weeks ago because of the county’s injuries suddenly found some movement to take two wickets in two balls.
A hint of in-swing found Ajmal Shahzad’s inside edge on the way to wicketkeeper Michael Richardson then Luke Fletcher pushed half forward and was lbw.
Jake Ball helped to put on 44 with Read and Nottinghamshire would have been all out for 290 had Rushworth caught Keedy, who put on 35 with Read before the captain was bowled with the total on 320.
Chase made his senior international debut in the two one-day games against Sri Lanka ‘A’ earlier in the summer and is expected to be included in Ireland’s 18-man squad to travel to Australia and New Zealand later this month as preparation for next year’s World Cup in the two countries.
