Simon Harmer continued his exceptional bowling performances when he spun Essex to a sensational victory in their County Championship clash with Durham at Chelmsford.

The South African spin ace returned match figures of 10 for 136, the sixth time in his Essex career that he has claimed 10 or more wickets in a match.

Yet for so long, the County Champions had struggled to make their mark on the game after being dismissed for 96 before their opponents carved out a first innings lead of 163 runs.

By the time the home side had lost half of their side second time around, they were just one run ahead. But Paul Walter (77), Ben Allison (52) and Sam Cook (37) all contributed valuable runs to set a target of 168 for victory and allow spin king Harmer to work his magic.

“For Ben Allison to have batted the way he did in only his second game was incredible,” said Harmer. “Plus, the way Paul Walter batted as well and Sam Cook and then ‘Ports’ (Jamie Porter) at the end.

“For us to be able to conjure up 160-odd for Durham to chase really gave all the boys belief and I think that with all that we have achieved in the last four years.”

Essex finally won by 44 runs with Walter and Allison having recorded career-best scores of 77 and 52 respectively whilst Cook hit 37 to equal his best first-class score.

Harmer has now taken 268 first-class wickets for Essex helping them to lift the County Championship title in his first year in 2017 before they followed-up with a repeat in 2019 and the Bob Willis Trophy in 2020.

And he is quick to deflect all praise heaped towards his individual exploits onto the squad of players.

“It isn’t about me taking wickets, it’s about the boys back in the changing room and what it means to you, them and us as a group,” he added. “I think that is why we find ways to get out of difficult situations when we find ourselves in them.

“Essex has what money cannot buy. We have an environment where we are just a group of guys who are all mates and who just want to win games and where the important thing is that it doesn’t really matter who does well as long as we are winning.

“I believe it’s difficult to get that environment in a professional sports team because in a team of 11 players, you have elven guys who have their own ambitions, their own dreams and goals and it can often get to a level where guys start to look after themselves and get selfish.

“But that is one thing that has never happened in my time at Essex. You can spend all the money in the world and get the best players in the changing room together, but it doesn’t mean they are going to gel.

“The camaraderie and character of our squad is second to none and we do have an incredibly good squad in terms of youth and experience.

“If we had sat down after the (Durham) game having not won, the work and effort done by Walter, Allison and Cook with the bat would have been glossed over but having won the game I hope this will highlight the importance of the runs they scored.

“Ultimately without their runs, we wouldn’t have much to bowl at and the outcome might have been altogether different.”

Essex travel to Warwickshire for their next game, starting on Thursday.