THE curse of the Durham captaincy has turned into a blessing. Where Mike Hussey left off, Dale Benkenstein has taken over, and yesterday, his golden arm earned three wickets in six balls to put his side in command at Northampton.

The hosts were progressing comfortably on 188 for six when he introduced his medium pace, and considering Durham had been 185 for six there seemed every chance Northants would achieve parity.

Instead they were all out for 214, 120 behind, and by the close of the third day Durham had stretched their lead to 327 on 207 for four following half-centuries by Jon Lewis and Nathan Astle.

Perhaps the increasingly sapping heat reminded Benkenstein of Natal as he finished with his best first-class figures of four for 29 and ended the day unbeaten on 45.

He was in his second over of the day, and Northants' score had moved on to 210 for six when Ben Phillips tried to force a ball wide of off stump away off the back foot and got a big inside edge into his stumps to depart for 24.

The next ball was also outside off stump and almost yorker length, but Johann Louw somehow managed to edge it to Phil Mustard.

For his next trick Benkenstein moved into slip and held the catch, which removed the hapless Charl Pietersen, and gave Gareth Breese only the second championship wicket Durham have taken with spin this season.

In his next over Benkenstein had last man Jason Brown caught by Mustard, and the last four wickets had gone down for four runs.

Following his century against Essex last week, 80 in the first innings here and four for 17 in Monday's totesport win against Derbyshire, Benkenstein can currently do no wrong.

His only problem will be whether to keep Northants interested by giving them a faint sniff of victory in his declaration today.

Everything went right yesterday from the first ball, which removed Martin Love for 49, prompting Northants' slide from their overnight 98 for two to 214 all out.

It was a poor effort on a good pitch, but again Durham bowled well. Mark Davies moved the first ball just enough to have Love lbw playing across the line and an action replay saw off Riki Wessels.

Ashley Noffke found good bounce from a perfect length to force Usman Afzaal to edge waist-high to Gordon Muchall at second slip and Northants had slipped to 121 for five inside seven overs.

Stocky skipper David Sales was looking dangerous with his powerful strokes and put together a stand of 49 with Tasmanian all-rounder Damien Wright.

Neil Killeen's better balls cut away too far to find the edge, while Mark Turner's in-swing often tended to drift wide of leg stump.

But he had the courage to keep trying and after being clubbed over extra cover by Wright he bowled a similar ball except that it swung in just enough to gain the lbw verdict.

Turner also showed his prowess in the field, twice almost running out Sales when swooping from mid-off to extra cover. The first time his shy took out middle stump with Sales being given the benefit of the doubt, the second time Turner missed narrowly.

Sales put on 40 with Phillips but was left stranded on 50 not out by the tail-end surrender.

Nicky Peng launched Durham's second innings with 16 at a run-a-ball, but then drove to square cover and is reaching the stage where he desperately needs a good score.

Muchall was well caught at short leg in off-spinner Brown's first over, but Lewis began to flourish following his careful survival of some testing new ball overs.

On 21 he drove a sharp return chance which Phillips failed to hold with his left hand, but when left-armer Pietersen came on with the same bilge as in the first innings it was meat and drink to Lewis' favourite cut shot.

He completed his first half-century since the opening day at Leicester off 116 balls with eight fours, only to fall in the first over after tea when he shaped to cut and edged to slip.

Despite a straight six off Brown, Astle was very restrained in his efforts to make sure Durham turned the screw after coming in at 35 for two. An on-drive for four off Louw took him to his first championship 50 for Durham off 118 balls, but just as he looked to turn up the heat in the final hour he top-edged a hook to deep square leg.

He had put on 82 with Lewis and 51 with Benkenstein, and the emphasis on building partnerships continued as Benkenstein repeated his first evening stand with Breese. They have so far put on 39 and with Mustard next in it will be all guns blazing this morning.

* Martyn Moxon has added Gary Pratt to the 13-man squad that is currently facing Northamptonshire, from which he will select the team for Durham Dynamos totesport League match against Sussex Sharks at Arundel tomorrow.

After recovering from a heel injury Liam Plunkett is expected to be fit and available for selection.

Read more about Durham here.