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Lancashire v Durham (County Championship) : Day Three

JIIMMY Anderson showed he isn't ready to surrender his Test place to Andrew Flintoff with another fine exhibition of swing bowling to polish off Durham yesterday.

He took five of the remaining seven wickets at Old Trafford, and with Michael Di Venuto being run out, Durham surrendered in 100 minutes to be all out for 90.

It was their lowest score since being dismissed for 80 by Sussex at Riverside two years ago and they lost by 232 runs.

In a match dominated by the ball, the quality of the opening bowlers was the difference, with Anderson and Andrew Flintoff having combined match figures of 16 for 119, while Steve Harmison and Mitch Claydon took two for 194.

Durham coach Geoff Cook said of Harmison: "He has improved since the experience in New Zealand and has bowled some encouraging spells with pace and penetration.

"But we have to keep the graph moving upwards. He was disappointed he did not apply more pressure.

"It was a hard first day for our three main seamers, but they had to bowl again more quickly than we would have liked because Lancashire bowled so well.

"Mitch Claydon has played very little first-class cricket.

After his two stress fractures he changed his action slightly in Sydney over the winter to take some of the pressure off his back.

"He bowled with some pace and in a normal situation he would have had a reasonable sort of game. But the way this match went every ball was crucial.

"In comparison with Lancashire's bowlers he has some work to do. He has to perform at whatever level he's playing and keep pushing for a first-team place."

Resuming on 28 for three, things briefly went well for Durham when both overnight batsmen were dropped in Flintoff's second over of the day.

Nightwatchman Mark Davies survived a regulation slip catch to Anderson, then Di Venuto turned Flintoff off the middle of the bat and Mohammad Yousuf parried the ball at short leg and made a second attempt to grab it without success.

Durham's acting captain then tried to pull the next ball and edged it over the slips for four, but he generally did a good job of keeping out Flintoff, who was almost unplayable to the right handers but less impressive to the left.

Anderson generally swung the ball away, but made one go the other way to pin Davies lbw, then had Garry Park caught behind for two.

After getting off the mark with a single off Anderson, Phil Mustard drove the first ball he faced from Flintoff to the cover boundary.

But two overs later he pushed the ball into the off side, took one step forward and stopped with Di Venuto already over-committed.

He couldn't get back in time to beat Mark Chilton's direct hit.

Flintoff rested after five overs, but Anderson kept going and a ball which left Mustard also bounced steeply to take the edge and fly to second slip, where the 6ft 4in Kyle Hogg took a good catch above his head.

Ben Harmison made 16 before edging to Luke Sutton when trying to withdraw his bat, Claydon was lbw to Sajid Mahmood and it was all over when Steve Harmison drove Anderson tamely to mid-off.

"We've gone from playing very little cricket to playing six days out of seven. It's tough, but we knew that would be the case,"

said Cook. "We had a very inexperienced team out, and there are no easy matches in this division."

Lancashire v Durham At Old Trafford

Overnight: Lancashire 143 (M Davies 7-33) and 293 (P J Horton 108; P JWiseman 4-87).

Durham 114 (A Flintoff 4-21, J M Anderson 4- 31) and 28-3.

Durham Second Innings

M J Di Venuto run out ... 24

M Davies lbw b Anderson ... 14

G T Park c Sutton b Anderson ... 2

P Mustard c Law b Anderson ... 10

B W Harmison c Sutton b Anderson ... 16

P J Wiseman not out ... 6

M E Claydon lbw b Mahmood ... 4

S J Harmison c Mahmood b Anderson .... 0

Extras (b2 lb1 w1 nb4 pens 0) ... 8

Total (34.4 overs) ... 90

Fall: 1-12 2-18 3-20 4-47 5-53 6-58 7-71 8-80 9- 89

Total Bonus Pts: Lancashire 3 Durham 3

Bowling: Anderson 17.4-4-46-5. Flintoff 11-6-21- 3. Mahmood 6-1-20-1.

Lancashire (17pts) beat Durham (3pts) by 232 runs.

9:28am Saturday 10th May 2008

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