Durham v Middlesex LV=County Championship (Day Three)

A CHANGE in the weather was a mixed blessing for Durham yesterday as it helped them to blow away Middlesex’s top order before the final session was washed out.

Even while Scott Borthwick was converting his overnight 164 into 216 it was evident that increasing cloud cover was making batting more difficult than on the first day.

Led by John Hastings on his debut, the Durham seamers exploited the conditions well in reducing Middlesex to 69 for four, 499 behind, before the rain set in.

Mark Wood bowled superbly to take two wickets on his return from injury and there were two good catches at third slip by Michael Richardson.

Of the other English players to score double centuries for Durham, Gordon Muchall did it at Canterbury, John Morris at Edgbaston, Will Smith at Guildford and current coach Jon Lewis at Oxford.

All the other doubles, bar one by Shivnarine Chanderpaul, have been by Australians.

Michael Di Venuto passed 200 three times at Riverside but until yesterday Martin Love was the only other batsman to do it for Durham on home soil.

Resuming on 164, 24-yearold Borthwick’s closest shave came from the first ball of the day. There was a confident appeal for lbw from Tim Murtagh and the ball looked on course for the stumps, but a run was awarded, indicating the batsman had edged it on to his pad.

There was a whip behind square for four and a lovely cover drive off Steven Finn, otherwise Borthwick progressed more slowly than on Sunday to 198, when he almost gave Toby Roland-Jones a return catch.

by Tim Wellock It was 95 minutes into the day’s play when Borthwick edged left-arm spinner Ravi Patel wide of slip for the two runs which took him to 200 off 293 balls. He celebrated with justifiable joy for someone who, until a year ago, was seen as a No 8 batsman.

Trying to accelerate just before lunch, he skied a catch to mid-wicket, giving Roland- Jones another wicket on his way to figures of five for 103.

Nightwatchman Wood missed his chance to show he can bat, making nine before pulling a catch straight to mid-wicket.

While Borthwick was allowed to take his time in pursuit of his moment of glory, Paul Collingwood tried to keep the score moving, pulling Finn for six on his way to 36 before he shaped to pull Roland- Jones and lobbed a catch to mid-on.

After batting at four when he made 158 not out at Trent Bridge last week, Muchall found himself at No 8. With the cloud cover thickening the ball was starting to nip around and he fell lbw to Roland- Jones for one.

Hastings used his powerful 6ft 6in frame to smash two sixes in his unbeaten 38 off 25 balls prior to the declaration on 568 for nine, then removed fellow Australian Chris Rogers in his second over.

Hastings generally used his height to hit the pitch, but also bowled some big inswingers when he pitched it up. He admitted he was surprised how far the Dukes ball swung.

Left-hander Rogers was trying to leave the ball which snared him but got a bottom edge into his stumps.

Sam Robson, tipped for an England place, struggled to 24 before edging a perfectlypitched away swinger from Wood to Phil Mustard.

Wood moved one the other way to have left-hander Dawid Malan caught by Richardson and the same fielder held an even better one, low to his right, when Ben Stokes found the edge of Neil Dexter’s bat.

Durham will now pray that the weather allows them enough time to go for an innings win over the two remaining days.

SCOREBOARD

At Emirates Durham ICG.

Overnight: Durham 411-4 (M D Stoneman
187, S G Borthwick 164 no).

Durham First Innings
S G Borthwick c Malan b R-Jones....216
M A Wood c Denly b T J Murtagh ........ 9
P D Collingwood c T J Murtagh
b Roland-Jones .......................................36
G J Muchall lbw b Roland-Jones........... 1
P Mustard c T J Murtagh
b Roland-Jones ....................................... 18
J W Hastings not out.............................38
Extras (b1 lb9 nb10) ...........20
Total 9 wkts dec
(131.1 overs) ..................... 568
Fall: 1-82 2-356 3-366 4-411 5-422
6-493 7-497 8-520 9-568
Bowling: T J Murtagh 28-3-119-1. Finn
24-2-117-1. Roland-Jones 25.1-2-103-
5. Dexter 15-2-71-0. Patel 26-5-100-0.
Stirling 12-2-45-1. Denly 1-0-3-0.

Middlesex First Innings Close
C J Rogers b Hastings............................ 1
S D Robson c Mustard b Wood ......... 24
D J Malan c Richardson b Wood........ 10
N J Dexter c Richardson b Stokes........ 3
J L Denly not out..................................... 11
J A Simpson not out............................... 12
Extras (lb2 nb6 pens 0)........ 8
Total 4 wkts (24.5 overs)....69
Fall: 1-7 2-38 3-39 4-45
To Bat: P R Stirling, T S Roland-Jones, T J
Murtagh, R H Patel, S T Finn.
Bowling: Rushworth 8-3-12-0. Hastings
7-2-20-1. Wood 5-1-25-2. Stokes 4.5-0-
10-1.