County round-up: Ryan Buckley impresses on Durham debut

Bowler of the day

Durham have a fine reputation for producing quality home-grown cricketers and they may have turned up another in Ryan Buckley, a 19-year-old off-spinner who displayed not only his skill, but patience and stamina on a memorable debut against Surrey at The Oval.

After claiming Vikram Solanki as his maiden victim in the morning session, Buckley bowled throughout the afternoon without success, not helped by seeing Steve Davies make 52 after he had dropped him off his own bowling on one. But perseverance paid off for him in the final session, which he ended with four more wickets for an impressive first analysis of 30.2-8-86-5.

Batsman of the day

There were doubts over Gloucestershire’s choice of Michael Klinger as their new captain and overseas player given the Australian’s modest returns for Worcestershire in 2012 (six Championship matches, average 29.30, top score 69) and, over the winter, with South Australia (average 19.41). Those doubts have been silenced by consecutive centuries from the 32-year-old opener, who followed his match-winning unbeaten 103 against Leicestershire with 131 not out against Hampshire at Bristol, countering a superb unbeaten 138 by Jimmy Adams.

Display of the day

Could Lancashire’s star be ascending again after the ignominy of being relegated as defending champions? Challenged with an Essex declaration to score 253 from a minimum of 51 overs at Old Trafford, Lancashire looked to be cruising as Karl Brown and Ashwell Prince put on 169 for the third wicket despite losing four of those overs to rain. But after losing three wickets in the penultimate over they still managed to scrape home with one ball to spare for a second straight win.