A THIGH injury to one-day captain Mark Stoneman ten days ahead of the Royal London Cup final cast a cloud over Durham’s progress at Lord’s yesterday.

He was hurt while fielding and had to go off, with coach Jon Lewis saying: “Hopefully it’s not too serious. We’ll see how he is tomorrow.”

Stoneman was unable to open the second innings, obliging Keaton Jennings to take first strike and bag an unwelcome pair.

Having been bowled first ball by Tim Murtagh in the first innings, he edged the first one to first slip and was dropped by Ollie Rayner.

But three balls later his off stump went flying as he pushed forward, leaving Scott Borthwick to survive the remaining eight overs with Phil Mustard. Durham closed on 28 for one, 129 runs ahead.

With Lancashire looking unlikely to win at Hove, the threat of relegation continued to recede as Durham also moved two points ahead of their hosts after dismissing them for 276.

As so often when things are not happening, it was Ben Stokes who broke the back of Middlesex’s resistance in a 14-over spell in the afternoon.

The key wicket was that of Dawid Malan for 97, triggering a slide from 166 for three to 202 for eight before Toby Roland-Jones and Murtagh put bat to the ageing ball. They averted any possibility of a follow-on by putting on 74.

Murtagh, who has Irish grandparents, has played in ten one-day internationals for Ireland and could be a threat to Peter Chases’s chances of playing in the World Cup next winter.

Chase, retained in the Durham team at the expense of Paul Coughlin after his five-wicket haul on debut last week, picked up two wickets, although the luck of the Irish might have been with him again when he had John Simpson lbw.

Durham had further cause for gratitude towards an Irishman with Ed Joyce making 137 for Sussex as they built a first innings lead against Lancashire.

Perhaps Chris Rushworth should nip across the Irish sea to kiss the Blarney Stone in the hope of finding better fortune.

He is still awaiting his first five-wicket haul of the season, but could easily have had it yesterday had more than one of the multitude of edges off his bowling gone to hand.

He still picked up three, including Test openers Chris Rogers and Sam Robson, to reach 40 championship wickets for the season.

The race to 1,000 runs is very similar to last season, with Borthwick edging ahead of Mark Stoneman on 958, although he added only seven to his overnight 169.

He skied a catch to fine leg and John Hastings edged the next ball to second slip before Rushworth hooked to long leg as the three remaining wickets added 29 runs and Durham were all out for 377.

Just as Murtagh had impressed with the new ball for Middlesex, finishing with five wickets, so did Rushworth.

He beat left-hander Rogers, the Australia Test opener, with his first ball, then saw the second edged for four and the fourth clipped to the mid-wicket boundary before inducing a thin edge with the fifth for Mustard to take the catch.

Robson, rarely impressive against Durham, made 15 before groping forward to a beauty which trimmed his off stump.

Malan, who seemed to be scoring mainly off the edge, had his closest shave on 27 when he narrowly eluded Borthwick at second slip off Rushworth.

Then Eion Morgan got off the mark with an edged four off Chase’s first ball, but after making 25 he was well pouched by Borthwick in the first over of Stokes’ marathon spell.

It was a tremendous effort by the all-rounder as the session threatened to become as soporific as the mid-afternoon slumbers on the first day.

The Middlesex faithful proved they were still awake when the first runs off Paul Collingwood’s bowling came off the fourth ball of his sixth over, when Neil Dexter square drove him for four.

A similar stroke by Malan took him to 87 and 1,000 championship runs for the season and suddenly he was in sight of one of those centuries which never looked likely.

He inside edged the next ball to the boundary, then edged wide of the slips. But the final edge, from an airy drive, proved fatal as it nestled safely in Mustard’s gloves.

That sparked the fall of three wickets for nine runs as Chase removed Simpson and had Dexter caught low down by Collingwood at first slip.

The procession continued as Rushworth had Paul Stirling lbw and Ollie Rayner edged John Hastings to Borthwick. But Collingwood had to recall himself to get rid of Roland-Jones for 49, lbw when swishing across a ball of almost yorker length.

Borthwick had come on for his first bowl in the previous over and Murtagh departed to his seventh ball when he tried to lap it to fine leg and was bowled.

SCORECARD

Middlesex v Durham
At Lord’s.
Overnight: Durham 348-7 (S G Borthwick
169 no, B A Stokes 85, P DCollingwood
59; T J Murtagh 4-91).

Durham First Innings
S G Borthwick c Robson b Finn.......176
J W Hastings c Malan b Finn............... 12
C Rushworth c Stirling b T J Murtagh..... 6
P K Chase not out.................................... 4
Extras (b4 lb5 w1 nb2 pens 0) 12
Total (104.3 overs) ............377
Fall: 1-1 2-20 3-24 4-200 5-294 6-295
7-346 8-367 9-367
T J Murtagh 26.3-3-106-5. Finn 23-1-102-
3. Roland-Jones 19-4-68-1. Dexter 11-1-
37-1. Rayner 25-4-55-0.

Middlesex First Innings
C J Rogers c Mustard b Rushworth..... 8
S D Robson b Rushworth .................... 15
D J Malan c Mustard b Stokes ............ 97
E J Morgan c Borthwick b Stokes ......25
N J Dexter c Collingwood b Chase .... 14
J A Simpson lbw b Chase ...................... 6
P R Stirling lbw b Rushworth .............. 16
O P Rayner c Borthwick b Hastings .... 8
T S Roland-Jones lbw b Collingwood . 49
T J Murtagh b Borthwick ...................... 24
S T Finn not out ........................................ 0
Extras (lb10 nb4 pens 0) ... 14
Total (73.1 overs) ...............276
Fall: 1-8 2-47 3-109 4-166 5-174 6-175
7-198 8-202 9-276
Rushworth 18-2-86-3. Hastings 14-4-50-
1. Chase 13-2-47-2. Stokes 20-2-77-2.
Collingwood 7-5-5-1. Borthwick 1.1-0-1-1.
Durham Second Innings Close
K K Jennings b T J Murtagh ................... 0
P Mustard not out .................................. 21
S G Borthwick not out ............................ 7
Extras (pens 0) ....................... 0
Total 1 wkt (9 overs)............28
Fall: 1-0
To Bat: M D Stoneman, M J Richardson, B
A Stokes, P D Collingwood, G J
Muchall, J W Hastings, C Rushworth, P K
D Chase.T J Murtagh 5-2-12-1. Finn 2-0-
16-0. Roland-Jones 2-2-0-0.