Collingwood boost for Durham

DURHAM will have Paul Collingwood available for their three Friends Provident Trophy matches next weekend.

It was believed that under his central contract the England one-day captain would play for Durham only in their next championship match at Old Trafford, starting on May 7.

But he can play in the FPT games away to Derbyshire on Friday, Lancashire on Sunday and Yorkshire next Monday.

On the debit side, it has been revealed that Neil McKenzie, who made three and 18 in the draw against Surrey, will play only two more championship games during his seven-week stay. Durham agreed when they signed him that he could miss the Lancashire match to attend a family wedding.

As skipper Dale Benkenstein will also miss that game because of the birth of his third child he was disappointed not to force a win against Surrey on Saturday.

The experienced alliance of Mark Ramprakash and Mark Butcher frustrated Durham after Surrey had slipped to 45 for three in the 13th over after being set a target of 270 in 53 overs.

The visitors were 83 for three when poor light ended play at 5.15, with Benkenstein unhappy that a new rule had allowed the umpires to call a halt without consulting the players.

"It's supposed to stop players manipulating the umpires, but it puts too much onus on them,"

said the captain. "We knew we couldn't bowl our quick men because of the light but it was disappointing to come off.

"We had given ourselves a really good chance by taking three wickets and we had a couple of very good shouts straight after tea. If one of those had gone in our favour we might have been able to go through them. We were under pressure on the first day, but after that we were on top.

"I was really pleased with the bowlers as a unit, but Graham Onions stood out. He bowled with good pace and incredibly good control, which he didn't always have last season.

"Steve Harmison didn't feel well in the first innings but he really hit his straps in the second.

He was determined to win the match for us, and with a few more overs under his belt he will be a match-winner."

Despite being hit for two sixes, Harmison also took two of the wickets and Surrey were never really in a position to chase the target.

Jon Batty was lbw to Onions in the second over, but Ramprakash had made only two when he cut a short, wide ball for six during an eventful few overs for Harmison.

Left-hander Scott Newman whipped a ball off his hip to long leg, where Onions took a good catch, and four overs later successive balls from Harmison were pulled for six, four, four by Usman Afzaal before the next ball drew him forward and had him lbw.

The fourth wicket pair had added 26 in 13 overs when Durham recalled Onions and he beat Ramprakash with his first two balls. But all hope had gone for Durham when bad light intervened at 4.45.

Three overs were lost, after which Benkenstein bowled himself and Paul Wiseman to ensure Durham would not lose any points for a slow over-rate. At least that was achieved before the umpires called it a day with 15 overs still available.

The day's biggest beneficiary from the attempt to salvage something from the loss of 120 overs over the first three days was off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq.

In trying to hurry to a declaration after lunch, Durham added 30 in four overs before Saqlain took five for three in 14 balls, including three stumpings, to finish with six for 50.

Durham began the day 117 ahead on 76 for two and in the second over Kyle Coetzer shouldered arms and had his off stump knocked out by a superb ball from Jimmy Ormond.

McKenzie edged a catch to wicketkeeper Batty in attempting to pull Pedro Collins from outside off stump.

But Benkenstein and Phil Mustard then put on 114 in 29 overs with the Durham skipper completing his second half-century of the match.

Mustard showed rare restraint in grafting to 29 off 70 balls at lunch then required only a further ten deliveries to reach 50 before becoming the first of Batty's stumpings.

Benkenstein holed out at midwicket for 63, while Wiseman's only scoring shot was a pulled six off Ormond.

The declaration came on 228 for nine after Durham added 152 in 41overs for the loss of seven wickets.

SCORECARDS

Durham v Surrey At Riverside.

Overnight: Surrey 183 (M A Butcher 65; G Onions 4-73). Durham 224 (D MBenkenstein 67, M D Stoneman 59) and 76-2.

Durham Second Innings

K J Coetzer b rmond .... 23

N D McKenzie c Batty b Collins ....18

D M Benkenstein c Afzaal b Saqlain Mushtaq 63

P Mustard st Batty b Saqlain Mushtaq .... 53

P J Wiseman lbw b Saqlain Mushtaq ...... 6

G Onions st Batty b Saqlain Mushtaq ...... 5

S J Harmison not out .... 3

M Davies st Batty b Saqlain Mushtaq ...... 1

Extras (b7 lb4 w2 nb6 pens 0) ........ 19

Total 9 wkts dec (64 overs) ..........228

Fall: 1-22 2-53 3-78 4-98 5-212 6-219 7-219 8-226 9-228. Did Not Bat: N Killeen.

Bowling: Collins 18-4-50-1. Ormond 21-3-72-2.

Saqlain Mushtaq 16-1-50-6. Jordan 3-0-21-0.

Nicholson 6-1-24-0.

Surrey Second Innings

S A Newman c Onions b S J Harmison .... 18

J N Batty lbw b Onions .... 0

M R Ramprakash not out ..... 25

U Afzaal lbw b S J Harmison .... 16

M A Butcher not out .... 21

Extras (lb2 w1 pens 0) .................... 3

Total 3 wkts (35 overs) ................ 83

Fall: 1-5 2-27 3-45

Did Not Bat: A D Brown, M J Nicholson, C J Jordan, J Ormond, Saqlain Mushtaq, P T Collins.

Total Bonus Pts: Durham 4 Surrey 3 Bowling: S J Harmison 9-2-34-2. Onions 9-4- 13-1. Davies 7-1-18-0. Killeen 6-3-10-0. Wiseman 2-0-2-0. Benkenstein 2-1-4-0.

Durham (8pts) drew with Surrey (7pts)