Jack Leach takes six wickets as Somerset defeat Durham

Although Somerset needs Jack Leach, England may not. In the Metro-Bank One-Day Cup match on Wednesday at the Riverside, the England slow left-armer took 6 for 26 to help his county defeat Durham by 133 runs.

Jack Leach bowling ensured that Somerset defended 241 with relative ease to secure their second victory of the season, as no one played him with any comfort on a field that was susceptible to spin throughout the game.

It also brought into stark contrast the significance of Lewis Goldsworthy’s innings-long 93 for the visitors. Scott Borthwick‘s 35 runs gave home fans little solace as Durham was eventually removed for 108.

After Andy Umeed was caught behind by Bas de Leede for nought in the second over, Somerset’s innings took a bad start. Things could have gone worse if Paul Coughlin hadn’t overstepped when he had George Thomas caught at slip for seven.

However, Thomas and Lewis Goldsworthy stabilised the innings after that and started to effectively take advantage of the home bowling. Colin Ackermann hit twice in two balls, and the second-wicket combination had indeed put on 119 in 27 overs.

The 21-year-old attempted an uncharacteristically inelegant hoick to leg, and the off-spinner dismissed him for 48. He then bowled James Rew with a beautiful delivery that dipped in and straightened sharply to knock the left-hander’s off stump.

After ten overs, Ackermann finished with statistics of 2 for 35, which meant that he and George Drissell had bowled twenty overs of spin for just 79 runs. But before Coughlin became the second home bowler to take wickets with consecutive deliveries, Sean Dickson and Goldsworthy had a 65-run partnership in just over 12 overs.

Dickson sliced the ball onto his stumps after reaching 37, and Mustard’s second catch came from Josh Thomas’s waft outside the off stump. The customary rapid runs for wickets exchanged occurred in the final six overs of the innings, with Goldsworthy taking his third wicket two overs later when he pushed the seamer to Jonathan Bushnell at deep midwicket.

In the last over, Bushnell took two cheap wickets while Kacey Aldridge and Jack Davey both scored hundreds. After finishing with 3 for 47, de Leede got 2 for 53, and Daniel Hogg made his debut bowling five overs for 19 runs.

Alex Lees and Ben McKinney put on 40 runs in less than eight overs to set Durham up for victory, but the fine work was spoilt by the loss of four wickets for eight runs. After making seventeen, McKinney lofted Alfie Ogborne to Jack Leach at mid-on. A little while after, Lees was leg before Davey for eighteen.

Then, in his opening over, Leach struck twice, first getting Ackermann caught behind for four and then dismissing Michael Jones for a fourth-ball duck. Dickson was able to give Charlie Cassell his first bowl for Somerset at 48 for 4, and the rookie bowled three clean overs for nine runs before the left-arm spinners of Goldsworthy was brought in.

When Leach bowled de Leede for 12 and Bushnell was leg before wicket for zero in the next over, Durham’s innings finally broke apart. Leach’s numbers at that point were four for eleven from 3.3 overs, while Durham’s were 70 for 6.

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Borthwick smashed a short ball from leg-spinner Umeed straight to Leach at midwicket, ending the home team’s last realistic chance of win with the score at 100. Leach got his fifth wicket when he got Coughlin caught by Rew for a single, and he claimed his sixth wicket when Haydon Mustard was also removed for twelve in a similar manner. When Goldsworthy caught Drissell behind for a single in the next over, the game was over.