GRAHAM Onions had to endure a couple of hours in grumpy mode inbetween twice taking two wickets in two balls yesterday.

His first hat-trick ball brought an lbw appeal, which was turned down, but he will be on another one when Nottinghamshire begin their second innings.

By removing Darren Pattinson with successive deliveries the persevering Onions finished with six for 95, his best of the season, as the visitors were dismissed for 261, 90 behind.

It was an extraordinary innings, with the first four wickets all going down on 21 before visiting skipper Chris Read and Australian Adam Voges put on 178.

Read played superbly to remain unbeaten on 133 and would not have been impressed with the way the last five wickets were surrendered for 21 runs.

Onions had already endured much frustration, including having Voges dropped by Paul Collingwood at first slip on five, when Paul Franks edged a wild slash through the slips for four.

In fact, the diving Michael Di Venuto got a hand on the ball but had to retire for treatment and did not emerge to bat when Durham had three overs to face, reaching six without loss.

Franks’ escape wasn’t costly as he was bowled by Ian Blackwell through a reckless slog, then Onions did the rest.

The title race looked like taking a decisive shift in the afternoon as while Nottinghamshire were recovering, second-placed Lancashire were putting together an even bigger partnership at Liverpool.

Having trailed by 91 on first innings against Warwickshire, the Red Rose men moved into a winning position as Steven Croft and Karl Brown put on 208.

Durham still have much to do in the final two days of their match at Chester-le- Street, but will not know until this morning whether Di Venuto is fit to bat after his first innings century. He went for an X-ray on a finger, but no break was revealed.

Read is accustomed to digging his side out of a hole and was undaunted by the chasm which had opened up with the loss of four wickets in six balls.

As Onions had taken wickets with the last two balls of an over and Callum Thorp with the third and fourth of the next, both were on a hattrick at the same time.

But Read played the first ball he faced confidently through mid-wicket for three and scored the first 25 runs in his stand with Voges.

The Australian’s survival on five raised speculation that Collingwood might be distracted by whatever Derbyshire are offering him.

He followed his duck of the previous day by dropping two catches at first slip. The first, offered by 18-year-old Sam Kelsall, was a difficult chance and didn’t prove costly.

But the second was a strange miss as Collingwood seemed to get his hands into position in plenty of time, only for the ball to go straight through them, just above his head.

The whole team thought Voges was caught behind off Onions’ next ball, but the impassioned appeal made no impression on umpire Steve Gale.

Once Onions and Thorp were rested Durham’s lack of support bowling was exposed after choosing to go into the match with an extra batsman.

It didn’t help that Blackwell, his hair dyed darker, bowled poorly in his first spell. Read cut him for three fours in his first over to race past 50 and the left-arm spinner kept feeding the same stroke.

Collingwood beat the bat a couple of times in a tight seven-over spell, which cost only 11 runs, but Mitch Claydon was unable to build on his six-wicket haul at Taunton, generally bowling too short and conceding 47 runs in ten overs.

After 47 overs without a wicket, Thorp made the breakthrough after tea. He had troubled Read, who might twice have been lbw but for an inside edge, but it was Voges who departed.

Aiming to turn the ball in front of square, he lobbed a catch to Dale Benkenstein at straight mid-wicket.

Onions’ luck finally changed when Graeme White was given out lbw. He indicated that he had hit the ball, which was perfectly clear, but umpire Gale felt the ball had brushed his pad first.

Then came the usual slogging from Andre Adams, who made ten before slicing a steepler off Onions to deep backward point, where Thorp ran round from third man to hold an excellent catch.

In the morning Mustard was left stranded on 88 not out but would be happy with four batting points after going in with his side on 197 for six.

Resuming on 272 for seven, Mustard and Thorp scored 30 off the first four overs, mainly off Mullaney.

Mustard straight drove the medium pacer’s first ball of the day for four to reach 50 off 84 balls, but Adams continued to look dangerous at the other end and completed his five-wicket haul by bowling Thorp for nine.

Last man Onions went in with four needed for the fourth point and Mustard hit his 12th four wide of mid-on off Pattinson.

But when he then pushed to deepish mid-off he persuaded Onions to come back for a second which was never on.

Nottinghamshire’s astonishing decision to send two debutants in to open backfired as Kelsall could have been out three times before Onions had him caught behind for 11.

Durham Academy product Karl Turner made nine before Thorp had him lbw on his way to the well-deserved figures of three for 48 in 18 overs.

SCORECARD

Durham v Nottinghamshire
At Emirates Durham ICG.
Overnight: Durham 272-7 (M J Di Venuto
132; A R Adams 4-59).

Durham First Innings
P Mustard not out 88
C D Thorp b Adams 9
M E Claydon c Read b Shreck 16
G Onions run out 0
Extras (b19 lb20 nb8 pens 0) 47
Total (89.2 overs) 351
Fall: 1-54 2-120 3-122 4-176 5-188 6-197
7-271 8-313 9-346
Bowling: Shreck 22-1-83-1. Pattinson 20.2-
3-61-1. Adams 27-3-82-5. Franks 11-0-58-
1. Mullaney 6-1-25-1. G G White 3-1-3-0.

Nottinghamshire First Innings
S Kelsall c Mustard b Onions 11
K Turner lbw b Thorp 9
M H Wessels b Onions 0
A C Voges c Benkenstein b Thorp 80
S J Mullaney c Mustard b Thorp 0
C M Read not out 133
P J Franks b Blackwell 11
G G White lbw b Onions 1
A R Adams c Thorp b Onions 10
D J Pattinson c Mustard b Onions 2
C E Shreck b Onions 0
Extras (lb3 w1 pens 0) 4
Total (71.4 overs) 261
Fall: 1-21 2-21 3-21 4-21 5-199 6-240 7-
241 8-251 9-261
Bowling: Thorp 18-5-48-3. Onions 19.4-2-
95-6. Claydon 10-0-47-0. Collingwood 7-3-
11-0. Blackwell 17-3-57-1.

Durham Second Innings Close
W R Smith not out 5
G J Muchall not out 1
Extras (pens 0) 0
Total 0 wkts (3 overs) 6
To Bat: M J Di Venuto, B A Stokes, P D
Collingwood, D M Benkenstein, I
D Blackwell, P Mustard, C D Thorp, M E
Claydon, G Onions.
Bonus Pts: Durham 7 Nottinghamshire 5
Bowling: Pattinson 2-0-6-0. Shreck 1-1-0-
0.