As England’s Ashes probables returned from their Spanish sojourn one of the possibles was wheeling away in the heat of battle trying to bowl Yorkshire to a fifth Championship win and keep his name in the frame for the series. For Adil Rashid the trip to the North-east has been reasonably successful, although the likelihood is that the leg-spinner has not done quite enough to sway Trevor Bayliss away from starting with only the off-spinner Moeen Ali for the first Test at Cardiff.
Rashid, the leading English spinner in Division One last season with 46 wickets, has taken four in the match at Chester-le-Street as Yorkshire chase an innings success. Three of those came during a hard-fought day three – one to wrap up Durham’s first innings and two more with them having been asked to follow on 349 runs behind shortly before lunch. The 27-year-old’s only five-wicket haul of 2014 came in a Roses win over Lancashire at Old Trafford and he has every chance of reaching that milestone on day four even though this Riverside pitch has not been as spinner-friendly as that one was in September.
Rashid has been given plenty of work by his captain, Andrew Gale, whose side spent all day in the field. He bowled the ninth over of Durham’s first innings from the Finchale end during the latter stages of the second afternoon and struck with only his second ball, getting Keaton Jennings caught at slip. He opened the bowling on day three from the Lumley end, conceding five runs in a testing three-over spell, and then bowled a 24-over spell unchanged in the second from just before tea through to the close. He had Jennings caught at silly mid-off for 41 and Paul Collingwood caught at slip driving, to finish with two for 81 from 25 overs.
“I thought Rash bowled really well,” said Gale. “To bowl like he did from one end without playing much red-ball cricket over the last month, I thought his pace was good and he turned the ball on a seamer-friendly pitch. I’ve said for some time that he’s ready to play for England. He showed in the one-day series that he’s not fazed by the big occasion. If they want a frontline spinner, he’s your man.”
Rashid has always been a go-to man for Gale with the tail-enders batting, so it was no surprise to see him return to the attack shortly after Tim Bresnan had struck with successive balls in the 55th over to reduce Durham’s first innings to 169 for seven, getting Scott Borthwick (54) and John Hastings caught behind.
Rashid saw Jack Brooks pick up two more wickets in the 63rd, his first of the morning, as Durham slipped to 195 for nine. Jamie Harrison was bowled and Chris Rushworth caught behind before the leg-spinner trapped Graham Onions lbw to wrap up the innings.
Though this match has not provided the eye-catching haul of wickets he would have hoped for in front of the national selector James Whitaker, who was present on day two and saw the morning session of day three before heading south, it has not done anything to alter the thought that England’s limited-overs spinner will be called on for his Test debut during this series should a pitch suit two twirlers.
Word from the Lions winter tour in South Africa suggested that he did not bowl as well as hoped, as was the case in the second of two Test warm-up matches against St Kitts in April. But there has been improvement on home soil. His best performance of the summer came with four wickets in each innings of his first Championship match, against Hampshire at Headingley in May, before he took four for 55 in the first one-dayer against New Zealand at Edgbaston.
Although his figures here may look a touch expensive, runs are not so much of an issue for Yorkshire. He bowled with good flight and variation during his extended spell either side of tea and tested a Durham top order which was led by a second hundred of the summer for the opener Mark Stoneman, who closed unbeaten on 116.
