Showing he has a decent cover drive in his armoury, Tongue racked up nine boundaries in his 55 as he overtook his previous best of 45 not out, made for Worcestershire against Nottinghamshire.
James, meanwhile, had made his way to 94, content to wait for the right ball as Tongue increased Durham’s frustrations at the other end. The all-rounder found his timing and struck the ball cleanly almost from the start. Only when his ninth-wicket partner fell was there a more urgent need to finish the job. A punched four off the back foot took him to 98.
Visibly weary by now, he then had the fortune to have no slips in place as he thick-edged Rhodes for his 14th boundary to take him past the milestone for the fifth time in his first-class career, curiously the third time against Durham. A popular figure with spectators and team-mates here, he threw back his head and removed his helmet to acknowledge the applause.
His departure for 125, caught off a steepling top edge, signalled a tea interval delayed by the ninth wicket falling, after which Durham faced 30 overs and a deficit that soon grew tougher still with two wickets lost in three balls, leaving them 29-2.
Aussie O’Neill thudded one into skipper Alex Lees’s back pad before sending Emilio Gay’s off-stump flying as the ex-Northamptonshire man bagged a debut pair.
Ackermann and Ben McKinney added 71 for the third wicket but McKinney, dropped at first slip on 33, was caught behind off Tongue for 37 six overs before the close.
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