Stalemate

Although he went on to complete his first championship century for three years, Gordon Muchall took the anchor role to extremes by scoring one run in the first hour.

Such caution looked highly questionable as Durham still had six wickets standing when they declared seven overs after lunch on 299, setting Sussex a target of 317 in 56 overs.

There were two brief periods when it seemed Durham might pull off their first championship win of the season. Firstly, Steve Harmison and Callum Thorp took a wicket each to have Sussex rocking on 16 for two, then with the hosts looking safe on 92 for three at tea Rory Hamilton-Brown and Luke Wright surrendered immediately afterwards, both driving at Liam Plunkett.

On 114 for five there were not going to be any more reckless strokes, and on what remained a sound pitch Durham were unable to prise out first innings century-maker Andrew Hodd and opener Chris Nash.

So for the third time this season Durham had to settle for a draw in a match in which they held the upper hand.

Muchall, 51 overnight, scored 20 in the first hour and threequarters then finally blossomed in the last 15 minutes before lunch, when he was on 89.

He completed his century with a straight six of Nash’s occasional off-spin as he added 38 in seven overs with Ian Blackwell after the break before the declaration came.

There had initially been some negative bowling, well wide of the stumps by Corey Collymore and Robin Martin-Jenkins. But Michael Di Venuto tried to keep the score moving, scoring 28 of the day’s first 29 runs off the bat to complete his second championship hundred of the season.

He fell for 103 when he edged one of Martin-Jenkins’ swingers to the wicketkeeper, then Dale Benkenstein perished for seven trying to move the score along.

He cut Collymore fiercely to backward point, where substitute Carl Hopkinson held a good catch. Blackwell made 39 in an unbroken stand of 88.