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Comment

ON an Old Trafford pitch noted for its pace and bounce it was the probing accuracy of Mark Davies and the swing of Jimmy Anderson which created mayhem yesterday.

The ecstasy of Davies' careerbest seven for 33 turned to agony as Durham replied to Lancashire's 143 with 114 all out.

This is not supposed to happen on a ground where these teams amassed 923 runs for the fall of 19 wickets two years ago, but this match threatens to be even shorter than the low-scoring two-day affair these teams contested at Blackpool last September.

Durham reached three figures only because No 9 Mitch Claydon took a liking to the bowling of Kyle Hogg, who would not have played had Glen Chapple been fit.

Claydon hit four fours in one over on his way to the day's top score of 40 before he was last out, with Andrew Flintoff taking the last three wickets.

There was no hint of the carnage to come when Lancashire, who won the toss, were making their way to 33 without loss against Steve Harmison and Claydon.

But the value of putting the ball in the right place was immediately apparent when Davies replaced Claydon.

While the bounce was occasionally disconcerting, there was little wrong with the pitch and the quality of batting on both sides was badly exposed by bowlers who harnessed the crosswind to swing the ball away from the right handers.

The danger from Anderson swinging the ball back into Durham's left-handed openers was obvious from the start of Durham's innings, yet both were out shouldering arms.

Flintoff's extra bounce found the shoulder of Kyle Coetzer's bat for a catch at gully, then Paul Collingwood slapped an Anderson long hop to point.

He was superbly caught by Mark Chilton, but that was no consolation for a player whose confidence going into next week's first Test cannot have been helped by his experiences of the last week. He has totalled 30 runs in four innings for Durham.

Phil Mustard became Anderson's fourth victim, although he indicated that the catch to wicketkeeper Luke Sutton had come off his sleeve. With no Dale Benkenstein to dig them out of the hole, Durham had to rely on another gritty character of South African upbringing in Garry Park.

He was immediately beaten by Flintoff and got off the mark by edging him for four, then ignored a few words from Anderson following a ball which might have nicked off stump rather than the bat. But after reaching 19 Park fenced at a ball from Sajid Mahmood and edged to Sutton, then Paul Wiseman walked into a straight one from Hogg.

At 61 for seven, Claydon, who bats left-handed, put on 24 with Ben Harmison before Flintoff's pace and accuracy wrapped up the tail.

At one point 27-year-old Davies took four wickets in seven balls, including Flintoff first ball, and all his victims were caught off the edge or the shoulder of the bat.

At either end of their innings Lancashire looked reasonably comfortable, but during Davies' two spells they slumped from 33 without loss to 100 for eight.

Shaping the ball away from the right-handers, he had four catches shared by first and second slip, two taken by Ben Harmison at gully and one by Mustard.

Flintoff, Chilton and Sutton were all pushing forward down the line of off stump when they were out, while the bounce he extracted from hitting the pitch hard helped Davies to claim the prize scalps of Mohammad Yousuf and Stuart Law.

Mal Loye and left-hander Hogg were the only ones contributing to their own downfall, Loye slashing a very sharp catch to Harmison junior after top scoring with 39, while Hogg simply hung his bat out.

After Steve Harmison and Claydon failed to locate the right spot in the first ten overs, Davies struck with his eighth ball, which Chilton edged to acting captain Di Venuto, who must have been starting to regret losing the toss on a sunny morning.

Yousuf was playing defensively on the back foot when an absolute snorter had him caught behind, and with the previously impressive Paul Horton wafting at a wide one to edge Harmison to Collingwood, Lancashire had slipped to 52 for three.

Loye, comprehensively beaten second ball by Davies, and Law then put on 41 with Durham turning to the medium pace of Collingwood and Ben Harmison for a few overs before lunch.

Davies resumed afterwards and Loye turned his first two balls to leg for four and three before Law edged him through the slips for four.

But when Loye departed, Flintoff, Sutton and Hogg swiftly followed for ducks. Then Law flashed an edge just over first slip before an in-swinger next ball brought a big shout for lbw.

The home captain looked lucky to survive, but the next ball pitched leg and middle, squared him up and lobbed off the shoulder of the bat to gully.

Gary Keedy was missed in the slips on one off Steve Harmison, who steamed in full of menace after lunch following a nine-over spell in the morning.

But when Davies was rested the ninth-wicket pair of Keedy and Sajid Mahmood looked relatively comfortable in putting on 37 before Collingwood took the last two wickets.

Mahmood reach 31 before nicking an away-swinger to Mustard, then Anderson was athletically caught at gully by Park.

Lancashire v Durham At Old Trafford

Lancashire First Innings

P J Horton c Collingwood b S J Harmison 25

M J Chilton c Di Venuto b Davies ... 7

M B Loye c B W Harmison b Davies ... 39

Mohammad Yousuf c Mustard b Davies .. 3

S G Law c B W Harmison b Davies ... 18

A Flintoff c Collingwood b Davies ... 0

L D Sutton c Mustard b Davies ... 0

K W Hogg c Di Venuto b Davies ... 0

S I Mahmood c Mustard b Collingwood .. 31

G Keedy not out ... 10

J M Anderson c Park b Collingwood ... 0

Extras (b4 lb6 pens 0) ... 10

Total (54.1 overs) ...143

Fall: 1-33 2-33 3-52 4-93 5-93 6-93 7-93 8-100 9-137

Bowling: Claydon 12-5-30-0. S J Harmison 18- 6-49-1. Davies 16-7-33-7. Collingwood 6.1-2-14- 2. B W Harmison 2-0-7-0.

Durham First Innings

M J Di Venuto lbw b Anderson ... 8

M D Stoneman b Anderson ... 2

K J Coetzer c Loye b Flintoff ... 8

P D Collingwood c Chilton b Anderson ... 3

G T Park c Sutton b Mahmood ... 19

P Mustard c Sutton b Anderson ... 8

B W Harmison b Flintoff ... 15

P J Wiseman lbw b Hogg ... 1

M E Claydon b Flintoff ... 40

S J Harmison c Sutton b Flintoff ... 0

M Davies not out ... 4

Extras (lb2 nb4 pens 0) ... 6

Total (39.1 overs) ...114

Fall: 1-5 2-18 3-18 4-28 5-42 6-60 7-61 8-85 9- 101

Bonus Pts: Lancashire 3 Durham 3

Bowling: Anderson 13-3-31-4. Flintoff 11.1-4- 21-4. Mahmood 8-0-27-1. Hogg 7-2-33-1.

9:32am Thursday 8th May 2008

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