County Championship 2022 Division II | Hundreds from Lees, Dickson ensure draw against Sussex

At the end of Day 4, the fixture between Sussex and Durham ended as a draw at County Ground, Hove. 

There was a tremendous amount of composure and class displayed by the openers of the visiting team in the first two sessions of the final day. 

Durham began the day on 169/0 with overnight batters Alex Lees and Sean Dickson, who were batting like a dream on Day 3. 

The duo was cautious in the first few overs of the morning session and negated the quality attack of Sussex in a fine fashion. 

After they set their eyes, it was a hard time for the home team to take their wickets. However, the tea break proved to be a blessing in disguise for Sussex, as Mason Crane was brought into the attack. 

He took all the time to set the field and finally dismissed Lees, who could not clear the square leg boundary and was dismissed for 105, with 10 fours a single six. 

In this pursuit, Lees and Dickson stitched a fourth-highest partnership (313) in the history of Durham County Club. 

Dickson tried to hit the shot off the extra cover in the last ball of the same over, but a thin under edge was caught brilliantly by wicket-keeper Mohammad Rizwan. 

10 overs later, captain Scott Borthwick was dismissed by Delray Rawlins for a score of 12 off 28 balls. 

Then Keegan Petersen and David Bedingham played out the remaining overs and remained unbeaten on 21 and 15. Eventually, the match ended in a draw, with Durham leading by 49 runs.

With the completion of this fixture, Durham is at fourth position in the points table, while Sussex mark their presence in seventh place. Although both have no victories in 4 appearances, Durham have 11 points more than Sussex. 

Durham will be squaring off against Worcestershire in their next league match, and Sussex will face Middlesex. Both these fixtures will be played from May 5 to May 8. 

Brief Scores: 

Durham- 364/3 in 113 overs (2nd innings)

Sean Dickson 186, Alex Lees 105

Mason Crane 2/110

Sussex - 538/10 in 153.5 overs (1st innings)

Cheteshwar Pujara 203, Mohammad Rizwan 79

Liam Trevaskis 5/128

Durham - 223 all-out in 73.5 overs (1st innings)

Liam Trevaskis 88, Sean Dickson 34; 

Tom Clark 3/21