THINGS began to go badly wrong for Durham from the sixth ball of the day, when Joe Leach edged Chris Rushworth past Gordon Muchall 's left ear at the third slip.

He was on nought at the time but proceeded to ride considerable luck in thrashing 76 off 53 balls to take Worcestershire's lead to 317 before he was last out.

With four overs to bat to lunch, Durham made a promising start through some fine shots from Mark Stoneman, who reached 18 in a score of 20 without loss.

Although John Hastings kept going for 10.3 overs this morning to finish with a career-best seven for 60, he took none for 38 in his first three overs of the day.

He already had figures of three for six from two overs when Worcestershire resumed on 65 for six, but in his first over Leach picked him up for six over the short leg-side boundary then edged another four between first and second slips.

On 22 he drove a straight six off Chris Rushworth and on 30 he survived another difficult chance to Keaton Jennings at deep backward point.

Leach and Ben Cox had added 72 in seven overs of mayhem when Graham Onions replaced Rushworth, only for Leach to lob a miscued pull into space between mid-on and mid-wicket.

The stand was worth 75 when Hastings had Cox caught behind for 32, then Sachithra Senanayake starved Leach of the strike in making 18.

He was very well caught by Stoneman running back at deep mid-off then Jack Shantry gave Michael Richardson his seventh catch of the match behind the stumps.

Hastings still held no fears for Leach, who made room to drive an attempted leg-stump yorker through extra cover to complete a 33-ball half-century.

When Durham finally turned to Scott Borthwick, Leach drove him over extra cover for his third six. He was finally bowled by Hastings when stepping back in an ambitious attempt to cut a ball which was not short enough for the shot.