Jonathan Trott, in his penultimate match at Edgbaston, held Warwickshire together with batting of high class on a truncated first day of their Specsavers County Championship match against Durham.

Warwickshire closed a day stripped of 12 overs by rain and bad light on 184 for six with Trott unbeaten on 67 (145 balls, ten fours) - a patient and skilful innings in testing batting conditions.

After early morning rain and a wet outfield prevented play before lunch, batting was never easy with moisture in the air under a canopy of thick cloud and with the floodlights on. Those conditions were exploited by Durham's seamers who were rotated at one end while, curiously, left-arm spinner Axar Patel was left to wheel away, spearing the ball in without looking particularly threatening, from the other.

Warwickshire were deeply indebted to Trott who reached the crease at 47 for two and stayed firm while middle-order partners came and went.

After taking up the option to bowl first, Durham struck with the 18th ball of the day when Dominic Sibley edged Chris Rushworth to third slip – it was his 400th wicket for the club.

Will Rhodes and Ian Bell added 38 in 12 overs before Barry McCarthy came on from the Pavilion End and removed Bell lbw with his fifth ball.

Rhodes applied himself for 105 minutes to reach 36 (71 balls) then perished when he turned spinner Patel off the face of the bat to short leg.

McCarthy struck again when Sam Hain edged to wicketkeeper Stuart Poynton, which left Warwickshire uneasily perched on 100 for four at tea. That became 114 for five when Tim Ambrose went back to a full-length ball from Rushworth which hit middle and off.

Trott reached his half-century (115 balls) with his ninth four, cut off a short delivery from Patel, in a partnership of 36 in 16 overs with Keith Barker before the latter fell to a fine catch at second slip by Alex Lees off Matt Salisbury.

Rushworth admitted: “It was nice to get the wicket early and get the 400 wickets out of the way. It had been playing on my mind a bit and I had hoped to get there in the last match. But it is done and dusted now and I can look forward to the rest of the game.

“Hopefully I can keep my fitness going and get a few more in the years to come. This seemed a long way off back in the days after I got released but everyone knows how proud I am to be back at Durham and to reach a milestone like this today and I know how proud my family are as well.

“It’s always nice to reach milestones but I would swap them for silverware with Durham any day and the way things are going those days might not be too far away.”