DURHAM had to endure an afternoon of toil yesterday and will spend the last two days of their home match against Lancashire trying to salvage a draw.

While things generally went their way last season, it has been the exact opposite this year, as epitomised by coming up against Shivnarine Chanderpaul on his Lancashire debut.

Their ex-teammate further twisted the knife by leading a charmed life in making 92 and in less testing conditions than on the first day wicketkeeper Luke Sutton made an unbeaten century before Lancashire were dismissed for 344.

With 13 overs to bat, Durham had reached 27 when Mark Stoneman edged the first ball of the day’s final over to Sutton to fall for 11. Paul Collingwood will join Michael Di Venuto at the crease this morning.

Sutton averaged 25.13 last season, with a top score of 45 not out, but he has been in much better form this year and this was his second century.

He reached the target with three through the covers off Mitch Claydon and last man Simon Kerrigan fell next ball, giving Phil Mustard his fifth catch of the innings.

It left Claydon with the best figures of three for 65 after coming on to replace Steve Harmison, who had just limped off following a diving stop in the outfield.

He was later reported to be fine and his effort was appreciated by the crowd, particularly as he had defied unhelpful conditions and a distinct lack of luck in an eight-over spell after tea.

In the seventh of those overs Sajid Mahmood cut and carved 15 runs off the first five balls before a leg stump yorker bowled him for 42.

He had put on 75 with Sutton in an eighth wicket stand that virtually killed any hope Durham had of winning a game that had already lost almost a day to rain.

Harmison followed up by having Jimmy Anderson well caught at short leg by Mark Stoneman to ensure Durham took all three bowling points.

They quickly found themselves up against it when play began at 1.55pm. After the torrential overnight rain, the skies had cleared by the time the outfield had dried and the bowlers were unable to replicate the previous day’s swing.

The pitch also appeared to have flattened as Chanderpaul and Sutton extended their stand to 135. Liam Plunkett then seemed to benefit from a switch of ends and suddenly produced a good ball to have Chanderpaul caught behind.

He followed up with the similar dismissal of Glen Chapple and, after again struggling at the Lumley End, his figures of none for 64 in 11 overs had suddenly improved to two for 69 in 15.

He forced Chanderpaul to play at a ball pitching on off stump, which did just enough to take the outside edge, while extra bounce accounted for Chapple.

Dropped on ten, Chanderpaul had added only two to his overnight 30 when he survived a big appeal for caught behind off Harmison. He was again in luck on 44, when Ben Stokes’ shy from gully just missed the stumps, with the West Indian short of his ground.

His 50 came up off 114 balls, with only three fours, but he then scored runs for fun and when Ian Blackwell came on, his first ball was swept for four and his third lifted to the mid-wicket boundary.

Sutton sliced a drive over backward point off Claydon to reach his 50 off 79 balls with his eighth four.

He was lucky on 65 just before tea when an attempted hook off Plunkett flew just out of the bowler’s reach.

This was the point when Durham needed to wrap up the innings swiftly, but the new ball brought no joy as even Callum Thorp could not reproduce the first day’s swing.

Anderson and Chapple are masters of the art and the latter twice almost forced Stoneman to play on, while Anderson had a big lbw appeal turned down against Di Venuto, when the ball had clearly swung too far.

Anderson generally swung the ball into the left-handers, but the first ball of the final over pitched on off stump and held its line to earn the finest of edges.

Scoreboard

Durham v Lancashire At Emirates Durham ICG

Overnight: Lancashire 136-5.

Lancashire First Innings

S Chanderpaul c Mustard b Plunkett 92

L D Sutton not out .........................101

G Chapple c Mustard b Plunkett ........4

S I Mahmood b S J Harmison .........42

J M Anderson c Stoneman b S J Harmison ........0

S C Kerrigan c Mustard b Claydon ......1

Extras (b4 lb8 w4 nb4 pens 0) 20

Total (101.3 overs)...............344

Fall: 1-52 2-59 3-59 4-74 5-110 6-245

7-253 8-328 9-332

Bowling: Plunkett 17-1-75-2. S J Harmison 25-3-93-2. Thorp 28-7-60-2. Claydon 15.3-3-65-3. Collingwood 7-3-11-1. Blackwell 9-1-28-0.

Durham First Innings Close

M J Di Venuto not out .....................11

M D Stoneman c Sutton b Anderson 11

Extras (b4 lb1 pens 0) ...............5

Total 1 wkt (12.1 overs).........27

Fall: 1-27

To Bat: P D Collingwood, D M Benkenstein, I D Blackwell, B A Stokes, P Mustard, L E Plunkett, C D Thorp, M E Claydon, S J Harmison.

Bonus Pts: Durham 3 Lancashire 3

Bowling: Anderson 6.1-1-15-1. Chapple 6-2-7-0.