AFTER successive away defeats on pitches on which they were keen to bat first, Durham were obliged to do so against their will yesterday and were dismissed for 207 by Warwickshire.

It was inevitable that the visitors would exercise their right to dispense with the toss so they could bowl under heavy cloud following morning rain, allowing their seamers to subject Durham to a testing first session.

More worrying, however, was that after being spun to defeat in their last two games, Durham lost their last five wickets to Jeetan Patel in conditions they surely hoped would be hostile to spin.

They left out their second spinner, Adam Hickey, only to find that Patel was able to turn his off breaks more than would be expected on a first day at Emirates Riverside.

Leading a determined effort to switch from Twenty20 into four-day mode, Paul Collingwood faced 107 balls for 23.

Going to the crease in the first over after lunch, he spent the whole of a sunny afternoon accumulating those runs with the help of one four from a leg glance.

But the warning bells were ringing when he tried to drive Patel straight after tea and the ball turned to miss leg stump, bringing four byes.

Collingwood then sat back to cut, changed his mind and popped up a bat-pad catch, becoming the first victim as Patel went on to finish with five for 32.

Stuart Poynter and Barry McCarthy, back from Ireland duty, were both bowled, Paul Coughlin skied a sweep to deep mid-wicket and Graham Onions edged an attempted reverse paddle.

Initially having to contend with Keith Barker's swing, Durham battled to 59 for two from 29 overs at lunch.

In a probing 11-over spell the left-armer took two for nine. Mark Stoneman concentrated on survival but was bowled for three when his forward defence was breached in the ninth over.

Barker has regularly troubled Durham's left-handers in recent seasons and four overs later Keaton Jennings was drawn into pushing firmly at one which swung to take the edge on the way to Varun Chopra at first slip.

Jennings had hit Chris Wright for four fours in his 21, but the boundaries dried up until Oliver Hannon-Dalby replaced Barker and Jack Burnham hit his second ball through the covers.

There was a lengthy delay just before lunch when Burnham hit himself in the foot and required treatment.

But after losing Scott Borthwick, caught behind for 19 straight after the break, Burnham hit two glorious drives either side of the wicket in one Clarke over The youngster moved confidently to 30 before edging an away swinger from Wright to Clarke at second slip.

Relieved of wicket-taking duties and handed the relative security of batting at six, Michael Richardson responded well with his first half-century since making 68 at the Oval in their third match.

While Collingwood dug in, Richardson stroked seven well-timed fours in his 68-ball half-century, only to depart for 55 when Clarke stuck out his trusty left paw at second slip to give Barker a third wicket.

With 12 overs to bat, Warwickshire reached 25 for one, Chopra looking surprised to be given out caught behind down the leg side off Chris Rushworth for ten.

Usman Arshad shrugged off his disappointment in the NatWest T20 Blast final on Saturday to star in Durham seconds' match against MCC Universities at South Northumberland.

He hit 105 in a total of 366 and followed up with three wickets to go with his three in the first innings as the visitors slipped to 44 for four, still 59 behind. Graham Clark scored 91 and Brydon Carse, still playing only as a batsman, made 44.