Davies blow softened by Thorpe's resurgent form

IF Mark Davies was feeling deeply depressed when his injury problems resurfaced yesterday, he could at least find reassurance in the fact that Callum Thorp's development was similarly delayed.

At 31, Thorp's roller-coaster career has suddenly scaled magnificent new heights with three headline-grabbing performances in four days.

After his six for 17 against Scotland at The Grange on Sunday he appears to be floating on cloud nine following the Durham team's flight down to Southampton.

He has recorded his career-best first-class performances with both bat and ball, following Tuesday's 75 runs with figures of six for 55 yesterday as Durham moved into a strong position against Hampshire at the Rose Bowl.

After trailing by 22 on first innings they closed the second day on 165 for three, Jimmy Maher making 57 and Gary Scott 34 not out.

The day began badly for Durham with the news that Davies' back had stiffened up after taking one for nine in eight excellent overs on Tuesday.

Durham have nursed him back in the second team since his stress fracture without any apparent problems, but his first senior appearance of the season has been cut sadly short and he will have a scan on his return to the North-East.

It is the second successive match that Durham's bowling resources have been reduced following Mick Lewis's groin injury against Kent last week, but Hampshire also had casualties yesterday. Seamer James Bruce will take no further part with an arm injury, and all-rounder Sean Ervine was also unable to bowl.

Had Hampshire found someone to stay with John Crawley, who fell seven short of his third successive century, they could have capitalised on Durham being a bowler light.

But Thorp bore the extra workload superbly and was well supported by Ottis Gibson and Graham Onions.

The hosts were two runs ahead on 236 for seven at lunch, at which point Phil Mustard had held six catches, which has been bettered only once for Durham, when their original first-class wicketkeeper Chris Scott took seven against Yorkshire at Riverside in 1996.

Hampshire wicketkeeper Nic Pothas had held five catches in Durham's first innings, but the edges ceased at lunch as Thorp quickly took the last three wickets with the help of two skied slogs.

Shane Warne had hit successive balls from Gareth Breese for six, four, six just before the interval and tried to set about ruining Thorp's figures after a morning spell of 9-6-13-2.

But a steepler to mid-on was held at the second attempt by substitute Moneeb Iqbal to see off Warne for 25 and in the same over Thorp hurried one through at shin height to bowl Crawley for 93.

Generally Thorp swung the ball away and Crawley had studiously left anything he didn't need to play at. But he was late on this one as he became the only batsman in the match to date to be bowled.

Chris Tremlett lofted Thorp for a huge six over long-on before skying an attempted pull to Jon Lewis at mid-wicket.

Thorp's previous best first-class figures were three for ten against Northamptonshire in last season's final match at Riverside.

He had one wicket in the bag when Hampshire resumed on 123 for three and struck in the day's sixth over when Chris Benham edged to Mustard.

Ervine quickly followed but two balls later Mustard missed a sharp chance low to his right offered by Dimitri Mascarenhas off Thorp.

It wasn't costly as Gibson saw off Mascarenhas shortly after Crawley, trying to withdraw his bat, inside edged him for four to reach 50 off 105 balls.

Crawley had been largely content to survive, but he began to open up with two high-class fours whipped though mid-wicket in one Gibson over.

The depth of division one teams was again underlined with Pothas coming in at eight and he shared a stand of 54 before trying to turn his back on a short ball from Onions and gloving it to Mustard.

Warne's onslaught on Breese suggested Durham could still face a sizeable deficit, and the captain's exit did his side no favours.

The arrears were wiped off when Lewis edged Chris Tremlett through the slips in the sixth over of Durham's second innings.

Lewis contributed 22 to a stand of 50 before medium pacer Dominic Thornely found some extra bounce to have him caught behind.

Warne took his first wicket of the match when Gordon Muchall played across a ball which kept low to be lbw for 17.

These variations in bounce were quite rare, however, and pitch inspector Raman Subba Row was obviously happy as he did not reappear for the second day.

Although Warne started to turn the ball quite sharply there was little sign of the googly and Maher played him quite comfortably, accumulating steadily to reach 50 off 132 balls by driving a Warne full toss through extra cover for his fifth four.

He was out 20 minutes before the close, lbw to another ball which kept low from Mascarenhas.

Scorecard

Hampshire v Durham At The Rose Bowl.

Overnight: Durham 234 (C D Thorp 75).
Hampshire 123-3.

Hampshire First Innings
J P Crawley b Thorp 93
(late on ball hurrying on to him 167b, 16-4)
C C Benham c Mustard b Thorp 13
(played forward, edged away swinger 45b, 2-4)
S M Ervine c Mustard b Thorp 0
(flat-footed push at away swinger 12b)
A D Mascarenhas c Mustard b Gibson 1
(played at one he could have left 15b)
N Pothas c Mustard b Onions 17
(tried to take evasive action, gloved to keeper 43b, 2-4)
S K Warne c Sub b Thorp 25
(skied slog to mid-on 20b, 3-4, 2-6)
C T Tremlett c J J B Lewis b Thorp 12
(skied pull to mid-wicket 12-b, 1-6)
J T Bruce not out 0
Extras (b5 lb7 nb13 pens 0) 25
Total (76.3 overs) 256
Fall: 1-59 2-59 3-91 4-126 5-134 6-151 7-205
8-244 9-245
Bowling: Gibson 20-5-79-2. Onions 16-6-37-1.
Davies 8-5-9-1. Thorp 18.3-7-55-6. Benkenstein
11-3-37-0. Breese 3-0-27-0.

Durham Second Innings Close
J J Lewis c Pothas b Thornely 22
(extra bounce, edged to keeper 55b, 4-4)
J P Maher lbw b Mascarenhas 57
(played back, ball kept low, 153b, 5-4)
G J Muchall lbw b Warne 17
(played across ball which kept low 45b, 3-4)
G M Scott not out 34
D M Benkenstein not out 14
Extras (b4 lb7 nb10 pens 0) 21
Total 3 wkts (60 overs) 165
Fall: 1-50 2-86 3-128
To Bat: G R Breese, P Mustard, O D Gibson, G
Onions, C D Thorp, M Davies.
Bonus Pts: Hampshire 5 Durham 4
Bowling: Mascarenhas 17-3-38-1. Tremlett 12-
1-41-0. Ervine 8-2-23-0. Thornely 12-6-25-1.
Adams 1-0-1-0. Warne 10-0-26-1.