STEVE Harmison completed his first five-wicket haul of the season yesterday, but it came at a much higher price than he would have wished as he finished with six for 122.

It was the most runs he had conceded in an innings for Durham, beating the six for 111 he took against Sussex at Riverside in 2001 and was an unfair reflection of the way he bowled on Saturday evening.

As in Hampshire's first innings, Harmison opened up fairly innocuously with none for 24 in six overs as the openers shared a stand of 93.

But once his brother, Ben, had made the breakthrough with a direct hit on the non-striker's end from deep square leg, Harmison senior seized his chance.

The admirable Callum Thorp took a wicket with the next ball then Harmison took the next four with a return to the superb form he showed at Hove the previous week.

In the space of six overs he removed John Crawley, Nic Pothas and Greg Lamb through edged catches and had Michael Lumb lbw. He also thought he had Sean Ervine caught behind first ball, but the appeal was turned down.

Hampshire slumped from 93 without loss to 134 for six, but as they were then 171 ahead Durham couldn't afford to let the lead get much bigger and kept Harmison on.

In a match in which Mark Davies and Paul Wiseman were wicketless, and Ben Harmison's six overs in the second innings cost 40 runs, options were very limited.

There was no further reward as Harmison pushed himself through a 14-over spell which produced figures of four for 48.

Despite Thorp striking in the third and fifth overs yesterday, again the lack of options meant Harmison had to bowl a further 9.3 overs, which cost 50 runs, mostly from the flailing bat of Dimitri Mascarenhas.

The Hampshire captain was beaten several times and Michael Di Venuto leapt to get his finger trips to one flying edge at second slip with the batsman on 41.

But by the time Mascarenhas had cut the first ball of Harmison's eighth over for six and followed it up with a back-foot four through the covers he had reached 74.

The next ball splattered his stumps, and in his next over Harmison found the shoulder of Shane Bond's bat to have him caught by brother Ben.

Harmison and Thorp both took eight wickets in the match, while Ben Harmison was responsible for the rest through his three for 25 in the first innings and his run out of Michael Brown in the second.