Durham 207 for 6 (Bedingham 83, Taylor 2-49) trail Worcestershire 308 (Home 63*, Hose 59, Raine 5-63) by 101 runs

After repelling Stokes’ second new ball spell in a vital career-best 63 not out to lift his side to 308 in their first innings, Home dismissed Stokes for 14 with his first delivery to the allrounder, lazily wafted to second slip, leaving Durham on edge at 119 for 4.

As relentless as Worcestershire were with the ball, Durham failed to stamp their authority. From allowing a significant first innings score after the hosts resumed on 209 for 7 to failing to convert a series of starts, with England opening hopefuls Ben McKinney and Emilio Gay missing out.

McKinney became the maiden dismissal of Harry Darley, whose first act in first-class cricket was a doughty 12 off 109 at No.11 in a 10th wicket stand of 57 with Home. For the tall left-handed batter, things have not quite flowed since an impressive 244 against Gloucestershire, and he was found wanting with a fend outside off stump to the skiddy 21-year old.

If McKinney looked sketchy for his 14 – edging wide of the cordon on 5, then skimming the fingers of Brett D’Oliveira at square leg with a wristy flick on 10 – Emilio Gay showed touches of class before making just 28. An edge through to the keeper off Taylor ended his run of centuries in consecutive innings, in a stay filled with nice looking drives.

A fourth hundred this season could well have inked Gay’s name for the Test squad against New Zealand due to be announced in the next fortnight. His slow trudge off was set against Stokes’ confident march to the middle for his first knock since the final Ashes Test in Sydney. He capped off a dispiriting tour of Australia with 0 and 1, finishing with an average of 18.40, with a strike rate of 36.58.

Stokes began well enough, on the ground where he scored his last century in the County Championship; a remarkable 161, featuring a record 17 sixes, back in 2022. It was his first knock after being appointed England captain and read as an emphatic statement about the all-action style he wanted to cultivate. Four years on, it is one in need of correcting at a far less forgiving time in English cricket.

He defended out of the middle among an on drive and tickle around the corner. But with Home coming around the wicket, Stokes was tempted across and flapped an edge through to Ethan Brookes.

Home could not contain his glee, continuing his follow-through with a leap and a punch of the air before being mobbed by his teammates. A big name for the 20-year old’s second first class wicket.

An England U19 regular last summer, having made his first-team debuts across all formats in 2024, Home, hailing from a Shropshire cricketing family, actually started out as a top-order batter. The clues were in the patience shown throughout the morning when he arrived at the crease in the 73rd over.

When Taylor departed in the 81st over, the hosts had were 251 for 9, with the second new ball just two deliveries old. Home, with Darley’s assistance, kept the innings alive for another 21.2 overs. Home stepped up a gear as Darley played possum, registering Worcestershire’s two sixes of the innings; a flamboyant lift of Callum Parkinson down the ground was bettered when pulling the sharp Luke Robinson into the stands between the hotel and Worcester cathedral.

The cheers when Home reached a maiden half-century were heart-warming. That ovation was replicated when, with a turn to midwicket, Home took Worcestershire to 300 and a second batting point in the over before lunch. The innings was concluded 10 balls after the break.

That Home and Darley are even playing is due to a spate of injuries among Worcestershire’s seamers. Adam Finch, Ben Allison, Ben Gibbon and South African overseas Beyers Swanepoel are all unavailable, and a further blow came when Oliver Hannon-Dalby was recalled from his loan by Warwickshire on Wednesday afternoon.

Typical of Worcestershire, the club have rolled with the blows and are, so far, going toe-to-toe with one of the big promotion favourites. They will be tested further on Sunday, against a deep Durham batting line-up on a pitch that is flattening out.