Alex Lees suffered a nightmare fate for an opening batter on the morning of the first day of Durham's County Championship fixture against Somerset, being bowled for a golden duck before the scheduled start time of the match.
The former England batter, who captains Durham across all formats, was looking to lead his side to back-to-back wins ahead of a month's break in County Championship action. His morning started well when he called correctly at the toss and opted to bat first.
Alex Lees dismissed first ball
Somerset lined up formidable New Zealand bowler Matt Henry with the new ball, who ran in to Lees who was on strike first up. He sent down a ball sliding across Lees, who looked to hit into the off side with his hands well away from his body. However, he got a thick inside edge on the ball, which cut back sharply to uproot Lees's leg stump from the ground.
As Henry wheeled away in celebration, Lees hung his head back and dragged himself slowly away from the crease after seeing the stump lying on the ground. To make matters worse, Henry had bowled the first ball at 10:58am, two minutes before the scheduled start of play.
Courtesy of Matt Henry, Alex Lees suffers the fate no opener wants: out before the official start of play. pic.twitter.com/FAx0cTyS3t
— Rothesay County Championship (@CountyChamp) May 23, 2025
Other opener and England opening batting prospect Ben McKinney started to rebuild with No.3 Emilio Gay. An hour after the game had officially started, the pair passed a 50 stand.
Durham currently sit in fourth in the Division One County Championship table, having won two, lost two and drawn two so far this season. Somerset are down in seventh, but come into the fixture off the back of consecutive wins in their last two games.
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