DURHAM chose the first day of the final match of the season to confirm that the county's longest captaincy reign was about to end. There was some logic to this, but it was a day when little else made sense.

Why should the season end when the weather is glorious? Why was the opportunity to give Mark Turner his debut not taken? Why did the bulk of Durham's 298 runs come from the lower order?

It has been suspected for some time that Australian Mike Hussey would take over as captain next season, but Jon Lewis was keen to continue his four-year reign.

He said: "It has been a great honour to captain the club and I'm disappointed not to be carrying on. But I have a year left on my contract and I will support Mike Hussey 100 per cent."

The irony for Lewis of repeatedly winning the toss when it was too late in the day to make any difference continued when the coin came down the right way up for the sixth successive time.

It is a run which started at Grace Road, when he put Leicestershire in and they made 642 for nine, so it was no surprise that he chose to bat against their depleted attack at Riverside yesterday.

The visitors didn't mind as they felt there was a hint of dampness in the pitch, a suspicion which increased as batting seemed to become easier throughout the heaven-sent day.

There was even a last-wicket stand of 47 between Neil Killeen and Graham Onions, who retained his place ahead of Turner and made 20 not out before Killeen drove at Ottis Gibson and was bowled.

As only two were needed for a third batting point, it might prove to be the moment which consigns Durham to the wooden spoon, but probably not.

On the evidence of the visitors reaching 66 without loss, Durham are not going to beat Leicestershire for the first time in the championship and will therefore finish bottom by some distance.

After the rise of four places last season, it's back to where they were two years ago and the old failing of a lack of runs has been the root of the problem.

Durham will finish with 28 batting points out of a possible 80, of which only 11 have been gathered at home and seven of those came in the first two games.

Since then there seems to have been an increasing distrust of Riverside pitches, which was again evident yesterday as Durham slipped to 114 for five.

Phil Mustard then mixed audacity with genuine quality to score an exhilarating 60 off 75 balls and for the second successive home match Graeme Bridge surrendered as soon as he had achieved his career-best.

He stroked ten fours in beating the 51 he made against Hampshire by one run but then stepped back and steered a catch to point.

Mustard's back-foot strokes through extra cover off left-arm spinner Claude Henderson bore the stamp of class, but as usual he was also prepared to take the aerial route off the front foot.

He hit 11 fours and his final scoring stroke was a hooked six off Gibson to bring up the 200, but three balls later he sliced a drive to backward point.

It ended a brief period of glowing entertainment for the fans and, unless something unexpected happens in the second innings, it means no Durham player will score a century at Riverside this season. Gordon Muchall has made 93 and 94 and the next highest is Marcus North's 68 in the second innings against Derbyshire.

They can't blame the pitch because championship hundreds have been scored by Glamorgan's Mike Powell, Yorkshire's Anthony McGrath and Darren Lehmann, Derbyshire's Jon Moss, Somerset's Richard Johnson and Hampshire's Dimitri Mascarenhas.

Leicestershire used seven bowlers, even bringing on the rarely-used medium pace of John Maunders first change. He claimed his maiden first-class wicket when Lewis was lbw for 27 aiming to mid-wicket.

With some seam movement available, the next six fell to a variety of edges, with Muchall and Gareth Breese being a little unfortunate.

Muchall showed more application than the rest of the top order in making 35 off 96 balls before he was brilliantly caught one-handed by Gibson at gully, while Breese edged via his pad to third slip.