Boland injury concerns, Bancroft enjoys county runs

Scott Boland's county cricket bow has turned sour with the Test pacer taken out of the firing line with an injury niggle while his fellow Durham bowlers got slaughtered by record-breaking Warwickshire at Edgbaston.

But other Australian Test stalwarts had a better day on Saturday as Nathan Lyon ended up with a three-wicket haul on his first major outing for Lancashire and Cameron Bancroft scored a fine 70 on his return to Gloucestershire.  

Durham said they were monitoring Boland after the 35-year-old had a leg niggle on the opening day in Birmingham and was carted for 54 runs off his 13 wicketless overs.

He didn't bowl at all on Saturday, and it felt like a good idea with his team taking a rare old pasting from the home batters, who ended up declaring on 3-698, the second-highest total in their history centred on a monumental 256 from captain Alex Davies.

"Scott Boland is okay. He has a bit of a niggle in his ankle or calf, I think, but the way the scoreboard was, it was sensible for him to go off (on Friday) and get some treatment on it," Durham captain Scott Borthwick told The Cricketer website.

"There was no point in taking risks on him this time of year, especially with the situation of the game. We'll just monitor it.".

In his absence, it was a nightmarish toil for his teammates, with spinner Callum Parkinson ending up with figures of 2-206 off his 40 overs as Will Rhodes finished at 178no before Davies' merciful declaration. Durham ended on 3-178 in response.

Lyon finished up a centurion in the runs-conceded column, but he'll have been largely satisfied with his first major outing of the summer at Southampton, wrapping up the Hampshire innings on 367 by taking the last wicket of Kyle Abbott before Lancashire responded on 4-233, with skipper Keaton Jennings on 85no.

The veteran spinning ace Lyon finished with 3-110 off his 38.1 overs, which featured six maidens. 

At their Bristol base, Bancroft, a star as a young batter at Gloucestershire back in 2017, returned to his old stamping ground in fine style, knuckling down to a patient half-century against Yorkshire as he top-scored on his return.

The 31-year-old West Australian, fresh from a successful summer in the Sheffield Shield, hit 70 as he helped the hosts recover from 3-28 to post 263 in their first innings.

His obdurate knock frustrated Yorkshire until a mad rush of blood saw him try to drive Dan Moriarty, only to hole out to Joe Root at deep mid-off. 

He'd batted for 196 balls and just under four-and-a-half hours but Yorkshire forged a useful first-innings advantage of 63, and increased that with 0-57 second time around.

Big runs were the order of the day with Emilio Gay and James Sales setting new landmarks for Northamptonshire in their division two clash with Middlesex in Northampton.

First day centurion Gay went on to post 260 - the highest ever individual Championship score for the county against Middlesex - while Sales made his maiden first-class hundred before Northants declared on 6-552.

Middlesex replied with 1-128, Aussie Chris Tremain taking 0-17 off his seven overs.

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