FOR the second successive home match Durham looked set to take advantage of being invited to bat first until Tom Smith showed the other Lancashire bowlers how it should be done.

He took two wickets in his third and fourth overs and also troubled Ben Stokes as Durham reached 96 for three at lunch, of which Mark Stoneman made 51 Lancashire’s decision to insert on an overcast morning made more sense than when Middlesex chose to field in sunny conditions and proceeded to bowl poorly.

The start was delayed by 15 minutes following drizzle then the Durham openers rode their luck to make a flying start.

After six overs from Kyle Hogg and Kabir Ali the total was 28 and 27 of them had come off the latter, although he had caused a few problems with Jennings picking up two fours off thick edges.

Hogg had an impassioned lbw appeal turned down with Stoneman on eight and also beat him several times before the left-hander inside-edged Kabir for four to bring up the 50 in the tenth over. Jennings departed for 23 when he drove at Hogg and sliced straight to gully, where the catch was held by Lancashire’s new signing, Australian Test batsman Usman Khawaja.

Scott Borthwick made six before he pushed forward and edged Smith to wicketkeeper Jos Buttler, then Stoneman shaped to off drive Smith and the ball swung in to bowl him.

Michael Richardson was on five lunch with Stokes on six.