MORNING storms gave way to an afternoon of drama followed by a long and tedious evening session on the third day of Durham's match against Glamorgan.

Faced with a deficit of 107, the visitors had 42 overs to bat after tea and showed little inclination to improve on their first innings crawl as they reached 92 for two.

Durham were given belated hope of forcing their first win when academy boy Matty Potts deservedly picked up his second wicket two overs from the close.

There was an element of luck about having Jacques Rudolph caught down the leg side by Stuart Poynter, but Potts had given the former Test left-hander considerable trouble.

The loss of the morning session seriously handicapped Durham and there is little sign of the placid pitch deteriorating, adding to the mystery of their afternoon collapse.

They contrived to lose five wickets for six runs before the last-wicket pair put on 68 to achieve maximum batting points with two balls to spare.

Chris Rushworth made 38 and Barry McCarthy an unbeaten 30 before Rushworth chipped Michael Hogan to mid-on with the total on 402.

They batted very sensibly in accruing the last two batting points, which were ecstatically greeted by the members, who will probably have to take consolation from a draw wiping out Durham's points deficit.

McCarthy continued to impress as he swooped from mid-wicket and went very close to running out Nick Selman as the opener scrambled a single to get off the mark.

The Irishman went even closer – probably within a coat of varnish – to bowling Selman with a perfect out-swinger in an excellent spell of 8-3-5-0.

Potts was equally impressive, eight of the 16 runs he conceded in eight overs coming when Rudolph twice edged him through the vacant third slip area.

A leaping Jack Burnham almost caught Selman at mid-wicket off Potts before the Australia-born opener's luck ended when the youngster nipped one in to have him lbw.

Andrew Salter went perilously close to playing on against Rushworth on one and survived an inside edge to Poynter off Ryan Pringle, but will resume on 25 today.

Durham's loss of five wickets in seven overs was all the more astonishing because only four went down in the rest of the day's 78 overs.

When play began at 1.10, Paul Collingwood and Ryan Pringle added 47 in the first 12 overs. It appeared to be plain sailing when Pringle hit Hogan for three fours in four balls, but he fell lbw to the next to spark the rot.

Hogan made way for left-armer Graham Wagg, who had Paul Coughlin caught behind first ball. Then Collingwood departed for 92 when he was unable to evade a steeply-bouncing ball which Marchant de Lange angled into him. It lobbed off a glove to gully, where Aneurin Donald moved smartly forward to hold a low catch.

An in-swinger from Wagg had Poynter lbw for four then de Lange banged another one in and had the Potts caught at short leg.

Rushworth and McCarthy were relatively untroubled once de Lange rested after a 12-over spell, in which his two for 30 took his overall figures to five for 95.