DURHAM’S man in form, Scott Borthwick, yesterday sympathised with the colleague he keeps replacing at the crease in the first over.

He has gone in to face the third ball of the match both at Lord’s last week and at home to Northamptonshire yesterday following first-ball ducks for Keaton Jennings.

The opener also failed to score in the second innings against Middlesex, despite being dropped first ball in the slips, but Borthwick has more than atoned.

After making 176 at Lord’s he became the first Durhamborn batsman to make 1,000 championship runs twice when he reached the landmark on 19 yesterday.

He went on to make 136 then said: “Keaton’s hitting the ball well in the nets, but Tim Murtagh bowled him two good ones last week and today he just managed to nick one.

“It’s a long season and your form goes up and down. You’ve just got to try and keep the mental side of things pretty balanced knowing you’re not far away from a big score.”

Borthwick was matched stroke for stroke by skipper Paul Collingwood, who made 101, as they took full advantage of Northants’ troubles.

After the first day’s washout Durham were anxious to press on for maximum batting points as they attempt to climb through Division One’s mid-table logjam, but a further ten overs were lost to bad light.

The stand of 187 in 41 overs between Borthwick and Collingwood was the biggest for the fifth wicket by any team at Chester-le-Street and carried Durham to 362 for eight.

Under morning cloud, when there was a brief break for bad light, they slipped to 110 for four after being put in.

But they looked like racing to 400 when 181 runs were added in the afternoon.

Several examples of shoddy fielding suggested hapless Northants were on the verge of chucking in the towel and on 82 Borthwick survived a regulation shin-high chance to wicketkeeper Adam Rossington off one of Maurice Chambers’ better deliveries.

A straight drive off Andrew Hall gave Borthwick his sixth four and took him to 50 off 87 balls. He then enjoyed a purple patch in racing to 78, culminating in two highclass fours off successive balls from Wagner from a straight drive and a pull.

Following his two halfcenturies at Lord’s, Collingwood reached another one off 64 balls when he clipped Chambers to the mid-wicket boundary and followed up with a straight drive for his seventh four.

Borthwick slowed up either side of being dropped, but on 97 he eased Azharullah through backward point.

He was always going to run three, but was handed four when Chambers, who had run round from third man, dived over the ball.

Northants tightened up after tea and Borthwick was bowled when trying pull Azharullah then Collingwood was made to work for his 137-ball hundred.

In the morning Stoneman fell lbw to Azharullah for 27 then Michael Richardson took 13 balls to get off the mark and made only 11 before, stuck on the crease, he was beaten by a ball from Hall, which swung past the outside edge to hit the off stump.

Wagner also had Ben Stokes caught at slip for 13 but conceded runs at six an over until he was brought back for the 79th over.

The new ball was due, but the old one had started to swing under increasing cloud cover after tea and Wagner immediately had Collingwood lbw. Gordon Muchall suffered a similar fate against Azharullah and Chris Rushworth edged to the wicketkeeper to bring in Indian paceman Varun Aaron on his debut.

He will hope to get Durham up to 400 today before unleashing his 90mph deliveries.

LV COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP

Durham v Northamptonshire
At Emirates Durham ICG.
Northamptonshire Won Toss

Durham First Innings Close
M D Stoneman lbw b Azharullah......... 27
K K Jennings c Hall b Wagner .............. 0
S G Borthwick b Azharullah ..............136
M J Richardson b Hall ........................... 11
B A Stokes c Hall b Wagner................ 13
P D Collingwood lbw b Wagner .......101
G J Muchall lbw b Azharullah .............. 10
C S MacLeod not out ............................ 16
C Rushworth c Duckett b Wagner ..... 11
V R Aaron not out..................................... 8
Extras (b4 lb11 w1 nb13
pens 0)...................................29
Total 8 wkts (86 overs) .... 362
Fall: 1-1 2-41 3-91 4-110 5-297 6-321
7-332 8-350
To Bat: P K D Chase.
Bowling: Wagner 17-1-95-4. Azharullah
24-4-79-3. Chambers 16-2-72-0. Hall
17-4-68-1. Middlebrook 7-2-22-0. K J
Coetzer 5-0-11-0
Trent Bridge: Sussex 391 (C D Nash
178) v Nottinghamshire 310-3 (J D Libby
108, J W A Taylor 101 no, A D Hales 57)
Taunton: Somerset 523-9 dec
(J C Hildreth 182, P D Trego 91, C
Kieswetter 69, C Overton 63, T B Abell
50) v Middlesex 64-7

Division Two
The Ageas Bowl: Kent 507 (D J Bell-
Drummond 153, S A Northeast 128,
S W Billings 92, M T Coles 4-84) v
Hampshire 127-3 (J M Vince 64 no)
Grace Road: Leicestershire 138
(D J Redfern 54 no, J D Ryder 5-50) &
117 v Essex 334 (J S Foster 132, R M
L Taylor 5-67) - Essex (22pts) beat
Leicestershire (3pts) by an innings
and 79 runs
The Kia Oval: Surrey 181 (G C
Wilson 70, M H A Footitt 6-69) & 279 (J
J Roy 81) v Derbyshire 210 (W L Madsen
63, S C Meaker 4-39, T E Linley 4-79)
Second Test Match
Gros Islet: West Indies 380 (S
Chanderpaul 84 no, L R Johnson 66,
K C Brathwaite 63) & 269-4 dec (S
Chanderpaul 101 no, J Blackwood 66
no) v Bangladesh 161 (Mohammad
Mahmudullah 53, K A J Roach 5-42) &
68-2