Right-arm pacer Tom Bailey resorted to bowling off-spin after Lancashire were denied their first-choice injury substitute against Durham.
Lancashire denied first-choice sub for back-to-back County Championship games
Lancashire’s spin-bowling all-rounder Arav Shetty picked up a hand injury in the morning session of day two of their County Championship match against Durham. Tom Hartley, part of the squad, was a straightforward replacement, but Lancashire’s request to bring him on was turned down. The county ultimately had to sub in wicketkeeper-batter George Bell.
They were denied their first-choice sub on the grounds that Hartley was much more experienced with five Test caps, and thus not a like-for-like change for Shetty, who was just playing his third first-class match, adding another incident to the list of controversies surrounding the ECB’s County Championship injury replacement trial.
This was the second time in two rounds that Lancashire were denied their first-choice sub. Last week against Gloucestershire, their request to bring in Tom Bailey for Ajeet Singh Dale were denied because Bailey was considered “too good a bowler”. They had to call up Ollie Sutton from a second XI game in Leicestershire to replace Singh Dale instead.
Seamer Tom Bailey and wicketkeeper George Bell bowl off-spin during Durham’s chase
Lancashire started the game strongly, and despite losing Shetty, took a 75-run first-innings lead following a hundred from Marcus Harris and a combined bowling effort. But their second innings started on the wrong note, and they were reduced to 33-4 and then to 72-6. An unbeaten second first-class from former Durham all-rounder Paul Coughlin helped them set a 336-run target.
Despite losing both their openers with just 46 runs on the board to start the final day, Emilio Gay and South Africa Test batter David Bedingham both hit unbeaten tons to take Durham home in the mammoth chase with eight wickets to spare. During the chase, however, they were aided by Bailey, who was deemed “too good” to feature in the last game, bowling off-spin. Wicketkeeper-batter Bell, who was subbed on for Shetty, had a bowl as well, sending down 5.5 overs of his off-breaks.
Match 24, Durham vs Lancashire
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