IAN Blackwell again came to Durham’s rescue when the expected run feast was failing to materialise after winning the toss on a glorious day at Edgbaston.

Durham slipped to 120 for four, and with Mark Stoneman having retired with a thigh strain it was looking just as well that Durham had brought in Gareth Breese at the expense of Mitch Claydon.

But Breese was down to bat at No 8, so Phil Mustard was content to play the sleeping role in an unbroken stand of 52 as Blackwell reached 46 in a tea score of 172 for four.

The burly left-hander included a straight six off Jeetan Patel among his boundaries and also swept and cut successive balls from the off-spinner for four.

Patel initally looked quite dangerous and the fact that he turned the ball bodes well for Blackwell to play a full part in the match.

Stoneman had made 17 of the first 23 runs when he had to retire after five overs. It was a real blow for the Blaydon youngster, who must have sensed a golden opportunity to improve his season’s average of 19.62.

He sent for the physio after the fourth over and after taking a couple of pain-killers he tried to carry on with Phil Mustard as a runner. But an over later he limped off and will return only if Durham need him.

It all looked predictably easy until Stoneman’s injury, but faced by some good bowling from 20-year-old Woakes, Michael Di Venuto began to struggle.

On six he edged just out of gully’s reach and after failing to connect with a couple of expansive shots he decided to knuckle down.

Durham skipper Will Smith fell lbw to Chris Woakes for one, then Gordon Muchall hit seven fours in his first 30 runs as Durham reached 95 for one at lunch.

Muchall opened up with three fours driven through the off side off Woakes, and as the third was in the air just wide of cover the young bowler gave him a few verbals.

Muchall then edged Woakes just wide of third slip and pulled the next ball for his fifth boundary to race past Di Venuto.

The Tasmanian later began to flourish, only to be beaten on 30 by both the 6ft 8in Irishman Boyd Rankin and left-armer Neil Carter But Di Venuto survived to reach 34 off 31 overs at lunch, with Muchall looking in fine form on 37.

Muchall added only two before Woakes had him lbw and the youngster continued an impressive spell by pinning Di Venuto for 40 when bowling round the wicket.

When Dale Benkenstein pulled a Carter long hop into the hands of mid-wicket things looked ominous, but once Blackwell had seen off Patel the balance was tipping back in Durham’s favour.