ON a day when neither took a wicket during Durham’s trouncing at Edgbaston, Mark Wood was named in the England Performance Programme for this winter while Scott Borthwick was not.

While his batting continues to progress, Borthwick’s legspin bowling has regressed since his appearance in last winter’s final Test in Sydney.

That was confirmed yesterday as he took none for 53 in nine overs as Warwickshire piled up 413 for eight with skipper Varun Copra making 160.

Wood was also expensive but had young Sam Hain in all kinds of trouble when he took the second new ball with Varun Aaron off the field.

Through no fault of his own the signing of the Indian paceman has served no purpose and as things have turned out it would have been better to give Paul Coughlin more experience in this game.

Wood’s time with the EPP will initially take him to Loughborough, where he spent the early part of last winter working on his fitness.

He will do the same again in the hope that he can string more than five championship appearances together, which he has yet to do.

He will then spend some time in South Africa with the other pace bowlers prior to an England Lions tour in the New Year.

Until Chopra sliced a low catch to gully off Paul Collingwood shortly before 5pm, Chris Rushworth was the only bowler to take a wicket yesterday.

Rushworth also struck twice in the day’s last three overs to finish with five for 94 and how he didn’t have Chopra lbw for 51 only umpire Rob Bailey knows. He continued to turn down all Durham appeals, although there wasn’t much to shout about. It was reminiscent of the final match last season at Hove when, with the silverware in the bag, Durham conceded a first innings deficit of 164 and lost by six wickets.

They were powerless yesterday during a third-wicket stand of 191 between Chopra and Jonathan Trott, for whom a century looked inevitable from the moment he took guard on the flat pitch.

He arrived after Will Porterfield shouldered arms to Rushworth’s second ball after lunch and was bowled for 28.

Durham were unable to take a wicket in the hour’s play in the morning before rain arrived. It lasted only a few minutes, but by then the square had been covered in sheeting and it was decided to take lunch at 12.15.

While Gareth Breese conceded only 23 runs in 15 overs in the afternoon, Borthwick found it almost impossible to bowl to Trott. If he dropped fractionally short the batsman sat back and pulled him in front of mid-wicket, if he pitched it up he was driven down the ground.

Chopra suffered a slight wobble on 98 when he survived two lbw appeals from Aaron before cutting him for his 16th four to complete a 187-ball century.

Trott needed 28 balls fewer for his ton, which he also brought up with his 16th four, a straight drive off Ryan Pringle.

Rushworth took the new ball with the score on 302 for two and in trying to pull the second delivery Trott skied a catch to short fine leg, where it was comfortably pouched by wicketkeeper Michael Richardson.

Rushworth also had Hain lbw for 11 then, after Wood’s new ball stint, Collingwood replaced him and looked almost as aghast as Rushworth in the morning when an lbw appeal was turned down with Chopra on 146.

He departed shortly afterwards, however, and Collingwood also persuaded Rikki Clarke to pop up a catch to short mid-on.

Aaron, back on the field, bowled another fruitless spell before Breese was recalled and was carted over long-on by Jeetan Patel.

After slipping from 304 for two to 346 for six, Patel and Tim Ambrose shared a stand of 65 to gain maximum batting points with 2.2 overs to spare, ensuring second place.

Durham will have to settle for fifth or sixth.

Warwickshire v Durham
At Edgbaston.
Overnight: Durham 201 (R D Pringle 63
no; K H D Barker 5-59).Warwickshire
77-1.

Warwickshire First Innings Close
V Chopra c Breese b Collingwood ..160
W T Porterfield b Rushworth...............28
I J Trott c Richardson b Rushworth ..104
S R Hain lbw b Rushworth................... 11
T R Ambrose c Richardson b Rushworth 29
R Clarke c Borthwick b Collingwood .. 0
J S Patel not out...................................... 37
K H Barker c Borthwick b Rushworth . 1
Extras (b2 lb9 nb2 pens 0).... 13
Total 8 wkts (112.3 overs) ....413
Fall: 1-76 2-113 3-304 4-322 5-344
6-346 7-411 8-413
To Bat: O J Hannon-Dalby, W B Rankin.
Bowling: Rushworth 27.3-2-94-5.
Aaron 22-5-71-1. Wood 21-1-92-0.
Collingwood 12-1-43-2. Breese 18-6-36-
0. Borthwick 9-1-53-0. Pringle 3-0-13-0.