Poor start hinders Durham on first day

THE good, the bad and the ugly aspects of outground cricket were evident at Guildford yesterday, although the ugly owed everything to poor batting after tea.

Increasing cloud cover on what had been a pleasant day must have played a part, but rash strokes were generally to blame for the sudden clatter of wickets.

Only four had gone down in 69 overs, but then nine more fell and Durham closed on 44 for three after depleted Surrey collapsed from 199 for four to 220 all out on an entirely blameless pitch.

The day’s last victim was Shivnarine Chanderpaul, whose first innings of the season for Durham ended when he edged a good ball from Jimmy Ormond to second slip for five.

The hosts squandered the advantage of winning a crucial toss, not to mention the hard work of century-making opener Scott Newman.

With a variety of strokes which would have shamed the club players who normally perform here, Surrey lost their last six wickets for 21 runs in nine overs.

There were three each for Liam Plunkett, who had previously struggled, and Ben Harmison, who finished with a career-best four for 27.

With 15 overs to bat, Durham quickly lost Mark Stoneman, who was yorked by Jade Dernbach, and Michael Di Venuto, who tried to cut a wide ball from Ormond and edged to the wicketkeeper.

Durham would have hoped to build a big lead on a placid pitch which is already taking spin.

That was why Paul Wiseman bowled all afternoon, forcing Harmison junior to wait until the tail of the innings for a second spell after an impressive burst in the morning.

Left-handed Newman rode some early luck to mix diligent defence with his usual strokeplay in compiling 113, but last year’s Loughborough UCCE captain Matthew Spriegel was the only other batsman to pass 15.

Morning sun gave way to afternoon cloud but the festival atmosphere persisted at the tree and marquee-lined ground, where trains trundled gently past at the railway end and batsmen complained about the sightscreen at the other.

Pitches and sightscreens are usually high on the list of complaints when first-class counties visit club grounds, not to mention working conditions for media and scorers used to Test-standard facilities.

With Mark Ramprakash’s stuttering quest for his 100th first-class century suffering a further delay through stomach trouble, Durham would have been keen to get into the Surrey middle order as quickly as possible.

But they must have been starting to wonder where the first wicket was coming from until Ben Harmison cleverly exploited the lack of sightscreen height.

The 6ft 5in all-rounder delivered a high, looping full toss which had a bemused Stewart Walters lbw after he had grafted for 75 minutes to contribute eight to the opening stand of 68.

The Australian was a stroke-playing middle order man when Durham lost at the Oval last season and was not best pleased that his efforts to do a job at the top of the order had been ended by a ball he didn’t see.

After Harmison tried the ploy again and almost bowled debut boy Chris Murtagh, brother of Middlesex’s Tim, there was a brief delay while remedial action was taken.

Above and behind the screen was the redbrick pavilion wall, so a white tarpaulin was suspended from the flat roof and there were no further problems.

For the batsmen there were no problems with the pitch either.

It was extremely placid, but offered enough signs of turn for Wiseman to suggest that Durham have reason to be grateful for the absence of Saqlain Mushtaq.

Seamers Matt Nicholson and Pedro Collins were also ruled out by injury, but Surrey may hold a trump card in former England leg-spinner Chris Schofield.

Durham gave Schofield a trial during his years in the wilderness, and if he happens to bowl well here they may yet rue not handing a first-class debut to Scott Borthwick.

Chanderpaul replaced Graham Onions in the only change.

Coming on for one over before lunch, Wiseman immediately had a big appeal for lbw against Newman with the batsman on 57.

The off-spinner almost had Newman again on 71, when the left-hander went for a big hit against the spin and miscued just out of the reach of Callum Thorp, running round from deep mid-wicket.

A similar type of slog/sweep, this time out of the middle of the bat, carried for six to bring up Newman’s century with the total on 167.

The rest of the top four all failed to reach double figures, with the persevering Steve Harmison removing Murtagh and skipper Jon Batty.

When Dale Benkenstein brought himself on for the day’s 21st over it was a fair indication that there was nothing in the pitch for the quicker bowlers.

To get the ball to shoulder height Harmison had to bowl very short and the result was what the professionals know as tennis-ball bounce.

But he kept coming back for more and had Murtagh well caught low to his right at first slip by brother Ben, then persuaded Batty to take the bait by cutting straight to Plunkett at gully.

There was also a wicket for Thorp when Afzaal edged a drive to Phil Mustard, bringing in another left-hander at 147 for four in Spriegel.

He put on 52 with Newman before the opener departed just after tea when he drove at Plunkett and edged to second slip, where Di Venuto held a good catch.

It was further proof that even when not at his best Plunkett is always likely to take a key wicket. He might have had Newman much earlier as both he and Thorp saw inside edges just miss the stumps.

Otherwise it was an impressive innings from the opener, shouldering extra responsibility in the absence of Ramprakash and Mark Butcher, who is recovering from a knee operation.

With Newman gone, the rot set in. Schofield took an awful swipe at Plunkett to be caught behind, then Ormond steered Ben Harmison to Di Venuto as though he were offering slipcatching practice.

Ben Harmison did produce a good one to bowl Spriegel through the intended off-drive which had previously served him well and Ben also bowled Dernbach to wrap up the innings.

Durham will now hope the sun is shining this morning, when Benkenstein and Will Smith resume their unbroken stand of 23.

SCORECARD
LV COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP
DIVISION ONE
Surrey v Durham
At Guildford.
Surrey First Innings
S A Newman c Di Venuto b Plunkett 113
S J Walters lbw b B W Harmison 8
C P Murtagh c B W Harmison b S J Harmison 7
J N Batty c Plunkett b S J Harmison 6
U Afzaal c Mustard b Thorp 15
M N Spriegel b B W Harmison 35
C J Jordan c Mustard b Plunkett 3
C P Schofield c Mustard b Plunkett 0
J Ormond c Di Venuto b B W Harmison 0
Hussain not out 0
J W Dernbach b B W Harmison 0
Extras (b4 lb18 w5 nb6 pens 0)33
Total (78.1 overs) 220
Fall: 1-68 2-93 3-109 4-147 5-199 6-212
7-216 8-216 9-216
Bonus Pts: Surrey 1 Durham 3
Bowling: S J Harmison 17-5-31-2. Thorp
15-4-38-1. Plunkett 16-4-49-3. B W Harmison
9.1-4-27-4. Benkenstein 3-1-4-0. Wiseman
18-3-49-0.
Durham First Innings Close
M J Di Venuto c Batty b Ormond 10
M D Stoneman b Dernbach 5
W R Smith not out 14
S Chanderpaul c Walters b Ormond 5
D M Benkenstein not out 10
Extras (pens 0) 0
Total 3 wkts (15 overs) 44
Fall: 1-15 2-15 3-21
To Bat: B W Harmison, P Mustard, P J Wiseman,
L E Plunkett, C D Thorp,
S J Harmison.
Bonus Pts: Surrey 1 Durham 3
Bowling: Dernbach 7-3-13-1. Ormond 6-
2-23-2. Hussain 1-0-4-0. Jordan 1-0-4-0.