DURHAM'S frustrations in their efforts to break the Hampshire hoodoo eased yesterday as they battled to cash in on a masterful innings by Martin Love.

The Australian countered the spiteful pitch with a superbly-judged blend of defiance and attack to score 78 at the sun-baked Rose Bowl.

From 141 for one Durham subsided to 221 for nine before a crucial stand of 45 between Simon Brown and Nicky Hatch earned them a first innings lead of 20.

That did not look enough on the deteriorating surface, especially when the new ball was largely wasted.

But Hatch continued to make an impact on his encouraging debut as he returned for a second spell and took the two wickets which sparked a decline from 64 for one to 105 for seven.

Durham will not want to chase more than 150 today and former Thornaby pro Neil Johnson kept the match in the balance as his unbeaten 31 took Hampshire to 134 for seven at close, 114 ahead.

There is still work to do, but Durham have every chance today of clinching their first championship away win since an innings victory at Cheltenham in July, 1999.

After over-pitching too often with the new ball, Hatch opened up with a maiden after tea then forced Will Kendall to play on and had Robin Smith lbw on the front foot.

A stunning catch by Love, showing cat-like reflexes in diving to his right, got rid of Giles White for 44 and Nicky Phillips picked up a second wicket when Lawrence Prittipaul wandered down the pitch and handed Andrew Pratt his 11th stumping of the season - a Durham record.

A mix-up with Johnson saw Dimitri Mascarenhas comfortably run out, then Phillips hung on at first slip to remove Adrian Aymes.

That was the only wicket for Hampshire's first innings destroyer Danny Law, who was out of luck this time as he often beat the bat.

Although this pitch is better than Basingstoke's, it is the second successive season that Durham have encountered an unsatisfactory surface in Hampshire.

Losing the toss for the fifth successive match has not helped, and with the bounce increasingly unpredictable someone like Andrew Caddick would be unplayable.

Batting was at its most difficult in the morning, with Jon Lewis spending 44 minutes adding only three to his overnight 59.

Following his moral successes against Love the previous morning, Hampshire opened up with off-spinner Shaun Udal but the Australian quickly hit him out of the attack.

This was not to Durham's advantage as the combination of the 6ft 7in Chris Tremlett and Mascarenhas put on the shackles.

Lewis shaped to cut Tremlett, only to find the ball bouncing too steeply and he steered it straight down third man's throat.

Love's seventh four took him to 50 off 87 balls, but he was forced to become increasingly watchful, while Martin Speight's stay in the team must be about to end after another failure. Giving no hint of permanence, he was lbw to Tremlett for nine.

The replacement of Tremlett with Johnson seemed to offer Durham hope, but after a couple of cracking boundaries Nicky Peng went for a big cover drive and sliced it to backward point.

Two balls later Law edged a ball which lifted and left him, then Love became over-cautious in the over before lunch, shouldering arms to a ball from Udal which turned and had him lbw.

Ian Hunter edged Udal to slip, Pratt top edged a return catch when attempting to pull Tremlett, and Phillips prodded to short leg.

In his first senior innings, Hatch quickly showed he knew how to handle a bat with a cover drive for three, which Brown followed by smashing Udal over long-on for six.

Hatch clipped Tremlett sweetly to the mid-wicket boundary then Brown stepped up his assault on Udal.

He drove him in the air just wide of mid-off for four, swept the next ball over mid-wicket for six, hit the next two to cow corner for two and four and was then dropped in the same position on 26 by Kendall.

Alex Morris replaced Udal and Brown lofted him straight to deep mid-off to fall for 29, his highest score for two years.

With the new ball Brown knocked out Derek Kenway's leg stump for his only success, and while he clearly enjoyed his breezy knock he will be hoping he doesn't have to bat again today