WITH hopes of a third successive win buried under Riki Wessels' familiar avalanche of runs, Durham face a two-day survival battle at Trent Bridge.

Much depends on Scott Borthwick, who followed the third five-wicket haul of his career with an unbeaten 59 as Durham replied to Nottinghamshire's 534 with 193 for four.

He was joined in a final hour of sublime batting by Paul Collingwood, who contributed 38 to the unbroken stand of 72.

Borthwick is being touted as a potential England tourist to Bangladesh and India next winter, more as a batsman than bowler as Nick Compton struggles to nail down the No 3 spot.

But his figures of five for 79, his best for three years, will do him no harm, even if the last four were gifted when the hosts finally showed some urgency.

Their attritional approach was justified by the way Durham slipped from 72 without loss to 121 for four after Mark Stoneman and Keaton Jennings completed their seventh half-century stand in nine innings at a rattling rate.

For one to clip a catch to the deliberately positioned short mid-wicket might be considered unlucky; for the other to follow suit was careless.

Three wickets had gone down for three runs when Jack Burnham fell first ball, becoming the first lbw victim of the match. Durham had a dozen decent shouts rejected, but none was as plumb as this.

Burnham's century at the Oval has been followed by 16 runs in his last four innings, adding further credence to Paul Collingwood's pre-match words about not over-exposing youngsters following an injury to Brydon Carse.

It looks as though Durham have blundered by retaining the paceman for a sixth successive match, recalling Chris Rushworth at the expense of Barry McCarthy.

Carse missed the second half of last season with a foot problem and appears to have a recurrence. He was never happy on Saturday, conceding ten in his first over and being responsible for two lots of four byes before retiring after conceding 41 in seven overs.

The three remaining seamers got through 94 overs, with Graham Onions in particular being extremely unlucky.

He had the best two shouts for lbw with his first two deliveries with the second new ball, when Brett Hutton was on three. That was the time when Durham needed to mop up the last four wickets, but Hutton went on to contribute a painstaking 74 to a seventh-wicket stand of 197.

While frequently beating the bat in the first hour yesterday, Onions grew so frustrated he hurled the ball back in the general direction of Hutton and the stumps, prompting a chat between the umpires.

While Durham have a far superior top three, they cannot match the strength of Nottinghamshire's middle order, in which Brendan Taylor made 114, Samit Patel 84 and Wessels 159 not out.

Batting as low as seven after also taking on wicketkeeping duties for this match, Wessels showed his voracious appetite for runs against Durham.

It began with a century for Northants in 2005 and has steadily grown during his time at Trent Bridge, culminating last season in championship innings of 117 at Riverside and 85 at Trent Bridge, plus 97 in the T20 clash at Chester-le-Street.

Until he made 72 at Southampton last week he had barely scored a run this season.

Resuming on 46 yesterday, he added only eight in the first 50 minutes and that included the streaky four off Onions which flew over gully to take him to 50.

Rushworth might have had him lbw for 58, but it was a no-ball, which summed up Durham's luck.

Hutton crawled to 50 off 121 balls then miscued a pull off James Weighell, which lobbed into space between short mid-wicket and mid-on.

Nottinghamsire brought up the 400 just too late for the fifth batting point and while Wessels was able to accelerate against the spin of Ryan Pringle, Hutton continued to bat as though the intention was to grind Durham into submission.

After being unable to part Taylor and Patel on Saturday afternoon, Durham endured their second wicketless session before Borthwick cleaned up after lunch.

Durham had 72 on the board in 13 overs of delightful batting before Jackson Bird went round the wicket and plugged the gap at mid-wicket which both batsmen had been finding.

Jennings clipped a low catch to Patel, who did well to grab another one wide of his left shoulder, offered by Stoneman off the first ball after tea.

Bird, who played in the Ashes Test at Chester-le-Street three years ago, beat Burnham's forward push with the next ball and bagged his fourth with one which kept low to hit Michael Richardson's off stump.

Collingwood emerged to play like a man for whom life begins at 40. A century and a draw would serve nicely as a slightly belated birthday present.