Khushi, Browne have Essex eyeing first-innings lead

Essex 314 for 3 (Khushi 107, Browne 94*) trail Durham 358 by 44 runs

A century by Feroze Khushi and Nick Browne‘s unbeaten 94 enabled Essex to take control of their Vitality County Championship match against Durham at the Seat Unique Riverside.

Replying to the home side’s 358, the First Division leaders were 314 for 3 at the close, leaving their side just 44 runs in arrears and perhaps laying the foundations for Essex’s third victory in four matches this season.

Durham’s batters will have something to say about that, of course, on top of which this Riverside pitch is still good for batting and the weather forecast for Sunday is grim. But nothing should detract from the quality of Khushi’s chanceless century, the second of his career and his first since he reached three figures at Canterbury in 2022.

And even when the 24-year-old had been dismissed by Callum Parkinson for 107, Browne shared an unbroken stand of 54 with Jordan Cox to leave his side well placed to take a first-innings lead.

The first wicket to fall in the morning session was that of the nightwatcher, Sam Cook, who was bowled by Paul Coughlin for 25 in the 19th over of the innings. By then, however, the stand-in Essex skipper had helped Dean Elgar put on 64 for the first wicket, a partnership which removed much of the shine from the new ball.

Five minutes before lunch, however, Durham took the wicket they most wanted when Elgar’s loose drive outside the off stump to a ball from Matthew Potts edged a catch to Ollie Robinson. The opener’s dismissal for 46 left his side on 97 for 2 at lunch but Potts could reflect that he had been unfortunate not to get an lbw decision against the South African in the first half-hour of play, a period in which Ben Raine had also had two confident leg before appeals against Elgar turned down.

In the afternoon session, Khushi and Browne carefully consolidated their side’s position with Khushi being especially quick to seize on anything loose, driving and pulling Brydon Carse to the boundary in the space of three balls. He reached his fifty off 102 balls when he off-drove Parkinson to the boundary and celebrated the achievement two deliveries later with a straight drive for four.

The hundred partnership was put up in less than two hours and perhaps the most noticeable feature of the afternoon session was the ease with which the pair dealt with Durham’s six-man attack on a good batting pitch. Off-spinner Colin Ackermann bowled the last over before tea, at which point Essex were 220 for 2, with Khushi on 88 and Browne unbeaten on 46.

The evening session continued much like the afternoon’s. Carse overpitched in the first over after the resumption and Khushi clipped him through midwicket for four to get into the nineties. A glance to fine leg two overs later and then a punch through midwicket off Ackermann took him to his hundred off 156 balls. He had batted 203 minutes and hit 16 fours.

Ten minutes later, Browne reached his fifty off 143 balls via a slice of good fortune when an attempted off-drive to a ball from Ackermann only produced an edge between Robinson and first slip Coughlin. Liberated by that achievement, Browne took two successive fours off Ackermann but three overs later, Khushi drove Parkinson straight to Graham Clark at shortish extra cover and departed.

Browne and new partner Cox soon had to face the challenge of the new ball but they did so with little fuss.