Durham in row at Rose Bowl

DURHAM were at the centre of controversy at the Rose Bowl last night when their first taste of championship cricket under floodlights cast a dark shadow over their victory chances.

Coach Geoff Cook described the 40 minutes of floodlit action as "slapstick cricket" after the umpires had accepted that the Durham fielders were having difficulty seeing the ball clearly and suspended play with 16 overs still to be bowled.

Chris Tremlett threw the bat at everything during those 40 minutes and enjoyed some outrageous fortune as he reached 62 to leave Hampshire 258 runs ahead on 309 for nine.

There was a further twist in the tale when it transpired that Durham's victory target today will be reduced by five runs because Tremlett, James Bruce and Chris Benham had all run down the middle of the pitch while batting.

Hampshire switched on their permanent floodlights for the first time in four-day cricket at 5.30 and Durham skipper Dale Benkenstein immediately objected to umpires Neil Mallender and Barrie Leadbeater.

He spoke to them several more times as Tremlett survived at least three chances, two of them from steeplers which Mark Davies and Will Smith failed to get under.

The precedent for playing championship cricket under lights has been set at Derby, where they have had permanent lights for two years and when played was suspended last night Hampshire's Director of Cricket Tim Tremlett said he planned to raise the matter with the ECB.

Cook also said the situation needed clarifying and added that Benkenstein knew from his experience in South Africa that the red ball is difficult for out-fielders to pick up under lights.

Cook said: "Dale says that the light becomes brighter centrally but there's a dark reflection further out for fielders, which is exacerbated by the red ball.

"We were not told beforehand that this could happen. They swung the bat and the ball landed in strange areas - it was slapstick cricket.

"Once the umpires accepted there were problems for the fielders they agreed to come off."

With Hampshire on 263 for eight when the lights came on, Durham's victory chances had already dimmed as for the second successive day they let a dominant position slip, despite the best efforts of Mark Davies.

He took four of the wickets as Hampshire subsided to 134 for six, when they led by only 83 runs.

At that point Shane Warne again took a hand in changing the game following his six-wicket haul, and Durham were also made to pay for dropping Dimitri Mascarenhas on two and Tremlett on seven.

Warne blasted two sixes off Paul Wiseman in making a quick 28 and after he was well caught by Will Smith at backward point Mascarenhas took up the cudgels on his way to 60.

The chance he gave was a difficult one to Graham Onions, who was back-pedalling at third man but got both hands to the ball above his head.

The total was 101 at the time, and having just lost their fourth and fifth wickets to Davies on 98, Hampshire would almost certainly have been on their way to a three-day defeat had the catch stuck.

Tremlett initially benefited from a very rare miss by Phil Mustard, which cost Davies his first five-wicket haul for two years.

As the lights lent the cricket a surreal, Twenty20 atmosphere Tremlett got away with flinging the bat at everything, with Ottis Gibson scarcely able to believe what was going on as most of the chances were off his bowling.

Durham failed to pick up the third batting point they needed in the morning to go top of the table as Warne took the remaining two wickets for the addition of 19 runs.

Gibson scored 14 of those to remain unbeaten on 33, although he was dropped on 21 by Michael Carberry at deep mid-wicket.

A regulation leg break had Davies caught at slip, then Onions was stumped off a fast, short ball which was taken at the edge of the crease by Nic Pothas but was not signalled wide by Barrie Leadbeater.

One of cricket's more bizarre rules allows batsmen to be stumped off wides, but the absence of a signal still affected the total.

Warne finished with six for 83 and Durham were all out for 283, leading by 51, which looked useful when Carberry shouldered arms in the third over and had his off bail trimmed by Onions, who had been unable to bring the ball back into the left-handers in the first innings.

But Durham then endured 14 overs of frustration as Liam Plunkett bowled easily his best spell of the match, repeatedly beating John Crawley.

The ex-Lancashire batsman somehow made 23 and had just nosed Hampshire in front when he was clean bowled for the second time in the match as Davies breached his forward defensive stroke immediately after having a good shout for lbw rejected.

Four overs later Davies went round the wicket to left-hander Michael Lumb and had him caught down the leg side by Mustard.

In the 11th over of an excellent spell of sustained accuracy either side of lunch Davies struck twice in three balls with the batsmen trying to remove the bat in both cases. Chris Benham got a bottom edge into his stumps and Pothas gloved a catch to Mustard.

Former Durham University opener Michael Brown made unremarkable progress to 59 before he pushed forward in Wiseman's first over and was taken off bat and pad by Gordon Muchall at short leg.

It was the third time in the match that the New Zealander had struck early in a spell, but hopes that he might wrap up the tail vanished as Warne set about him.

Wiseman was withdrawn from the firing line but returned when Warne fell to Onions, only to be hit twice more over long-on by Tremlett.

The off-spinner also conceded four leg-side byes with a ball which was signalled wide by Neil Mallender, although it was nowhere near as wide as the ball with which Warne took his last wicket.

Nothing went Durham's way during the eighth-wicket stand of 72 as the batsmen's cavalier approach came off against an ageing ball.

Mascarenhas finally wafted at a bouncer from Plunkett and edged to Mustard, but attempts to bounce out Tremlett failed as the 6ft 7in seamer survived more through luck than good judgement.

Durham's lack of a top-class spinner is often exposed as seasons progress and the point will be cruelly underlined if Warne bowls them to defeat today.

SCORECARD

Hampshire v Durham at The Rose Bowl.

Overnight: Hampshire 232 (M J Lumb 70).
Durham 264-8 (M J Di Venuto124, G J Muchall
59; S K Warne 4-76).

Durham First Innings
O D Gibson not out 33
M Davies c Benham b Warne 3
G Onions st Pothas b Warne 1
Extras (b5 lb1 w1 nb8 pens 5) 20
Total (77.1 overs) 288
Fall: 1-116 2-210 3-226 4-227 5-230 6-237 7-
247 8-250 9-277
Bowling: Clark 13-3-48-1. Bruce 9-0-52-0. Mascarenhas
7-1-22-0. Tremlett 21-4-63-3. Warne
26.1-3-83-6. Carberry 1-0-9-0.

Hampshire Second Innings Close
M A Carberry b Onions 6
M J Brown c Muchall b Wiseman 59
J P Crawley b Davies 23
M J Lumb c Mustard b Davies 7
C C Benham b Davies 15
N Pothas c Mustard b Davies 0
A D Mascarenhas c Mustard b Plunkett 60
S K Warne c W R Smith b Onions 33
C T Tremlett not out 62
S R Clark b Plunkett 16
J T Bruce not out 11
Extras (b4 lb5 w6 nb2 pens 0) 17
Total 9 wkts (79 overs) 309
Fall: 1-8 2-52 3-68 4-98 5-98 6-134 7-179 8-
251 9-273
Bonus Pts: Hampshire 4 Durham 5
Bowling: Onions 13-0-55-2. Plunkett 20-4-79-2.
Davies 19-5-48-4. Gibson 17-3-50-0. Wiseman 9-
0-67-1. Styris 1-0-1-0.