Return to the bad old days as Durham are shot down

Durham couldn't even blame the interruption to their previously buoyant championship campaign caused by the Twenty20 Cup as they initially had no problem in switching modes.

After a fortnight of helter-skelter it was all very sedate as Jon Lewis and Gary Scott put together their opening stand in 29 overs with absolutely no hint of what was to come.

Had it not been for Nathan Astle's 58 it would have been a complete shambles as four other middle-order men mustered five runs between them.

A depressing day ended with Lewis, who defied a broken finger to play, being led off after suffering another injury in the field.

The pitch didn't help as Astle and Nicky Peng were bowled by balls which barely left the ground, but in Peng's case the excuses cannot last much longer.

With Scott doing an excellent job as a makeshift opener to score 29, and Mike Hussey and Paul Collingwood back for the next match, Peng desperately needed runs.

Skipper Dale Benkenstein, who has barely put a foot wrong of late, hardly got his front foot forward in shaping to drive James Anderson, his former Burnley teammate.

He edged to first slip, and others who self-destructed were Phil Mustard, who drove Gary Keedy to mid-on, Ashley Noffke, who gloved a sweep at the left-arm spinner to the wicketkeeper, and Mark Davies, who reacted to his demotion to last man by edging an airy drive befitting a No 11.

The others were largely undone by a combination of the pitch and good bowling.

There were three wickets for Yorkshiremen Glen Chapple and Keedy, and two each for Anderson and Dominic Cork. They all bowled well, but not exceptionally so, and with no Muthiah Muralitharan to worry about Durham would have expected to do much better.

Their previous lowest total this season was 256 at Worcester and in their last home match they made 505 against Essex.

Durham awarded county caps before start of play to Davies and Gordon Muchall.

The fact that it hadn't been done earlier at least confirmed that caps have to be earned these days.

In Muchall's case there was a quick reminder that life has a habit of kicking you in the teeth just when you think you've got it cracked as he was out first ball at the start of Durham's collapse, caught off bat and pad off Keedy.

Despite having signed Marcus North, who was with Durham last season, Lancashire fielded only one overseas player in Brad Hodge. The rules work in such mysterious ways that, as Hodge's replacement, North has to wait until his fellow Australian has joined up with the Test squad, even though Muralitharan is no longer available.

After winning the toss on a lovely day, Benkenstein's decision to bat looked sound as neither Anderson nor Cork posed much threat initially.

Almost four years after his only previous championship appearance, Scott looked very composed and patient. He was off the mark first ball with a single wide of gully and in the second over cracked Cork through the covers off the back foot.

There were only three more fours in his 111-ball innings but he had done the job asked of him by the time he pushed forward at a good ball from Cork and edged to second slip.

Lewis was first to go, falling for 36 for the third time in a season in which he has repeatedly made good starts but has yet to get beyond 52.

He played back to a good-length ball from Chapple which nipped back and had him lbw.

Astle was on 11 at lunch and struggled to find his timing for a while afterwards. But a couple of straight drives were followed by some fiercely-struck back-foot shots, forcing Lancashire to post a deep cover.

The New Zealander was going well by the time Mustard joined him at 109 for six and for a while there was the promise of rich entertainment.

But Mustard was out with the stand worth 47 and the last four wickets went down for nine runs.

The visitors' Yorkshire-born contingent continued to trouble Durham as left-hander Iain Sutcliffe dominated an opening stand of 77 with skipper Mark Chilton.

The watchful Chilton dug out a second-ball shooter from Noffke and dealt equally well with several more as he remained unbeaten on 39.

Sutcliffe was not in the team when Durham won by nine wickets at Old Trafford two months ago but has done well since coming in and looked impressive yesterday in making 48. He was out in Gareth Breese's first over, edging to Benkenstein at slip, but there was no further joy as Mal Loye kept Chilton company to the close.

Read more about Durham here.