LIAM Plunkett yesterday celebrated his England Academy call-up by turning the clock back to the first match of the season.

His four for 48 against Hampshire at the Rose Bowl were his best figures this year until he took four for 30 to reduce the same opponents to 50 for five before bad light and drizzle ended play at Riverside.

After the first two days were washed out, the loss of a further 50 minutes was a blow after the game made good progress, with Durham being dismissed for 217.

Plunkett is one of seven youngsters named as part-timers alongside a more mature Academy squad for this winter.

Still only 19, he has had a tough time with the ball since returning after injury, but he keenly exploited conditions which were inevitably suited to seam.

Hampshire were without Alan Mullally and Chris Tremlett and gave new ball pair Billy Taylor and James Bruce only 18 overs between them, which may have been to Durham's advantage.

There's still a schoolboyish look about Graeme Bridge, but there was no end-of-term nonchalance about his batting as he shored up the Durham innings.

Bridge made a career-best 51 not out to ensure Durham collected one batting point, taking their total to five from the last five games.

The last time they topped 300 was at Cardiff in June, when Marcus North made 219, but the Australian's duck yesterday was his fifth successive single figure score.

It's the form of a man who has lost his motivation, knowing that his Western Australia teammate Mike Hussey is likely to take over next season, and it's also difficult to see how Durham can get the best out of Shaun Tait at this late stage.

They left him out yesterday and surely cannot contemplate playing him in Sunday's crucial totesport League match at home to Sussex.

Graham Onions replaced Tait and with Phil Mustard preferred to Andrew Pratt, it was the first time Mustard and Onions had featured in the same championship line-up.

A combination to make the mouth and eyes water perhaps, and with Mustard scoring six of his seven runs in one blow and Onions shaping well with the bat they at least offered the promise of making the fare more tasty for the Durham fans.

With leading wicket-taker Mark Davies hoping to be fit to return for the five days of action against Yorkshire at Scarborough starting next Wednesday, Durham will have to be pretty sure Tait has sorted out his run-up troubles before giving him another chance to show his paces.

Durham's lack of overseas input yesterday was in stark contrast to Shane Warne's enthusiastic efforts to clinch promotion for second-placed Hampshire.

The visiting captain came on for the last over before lunch and with his fourth ball gained what looked a decidedly dodgy lbw verdict. Warne then bowled unchanged for the rest of the innings to take three for 53, despite looking well below his best.

As he proved at Colchester last week, there will be no throwing-in of the towel from Jon Lewis, although he must be ruing the fact that he keeps winning the toss in these two-day games when he would rather have won it in good, early season conditions.

Having again chosen to bat on a pitch which was bound to have some dampness in it, he battled to 29 before departing unluckily. He went to cut a wide ball from the left-arm medium pace of James Adams and chopped it into his stumps.

The conditions suited the medium pace swing and seam of Dimitri Mascarenhas, who was on for the fifth over and barely conceded a run until Lewis hit a back-foot four through the covers in his seventh over.

By that time Mascarenhas had already had Gareth Breese caught behind, and he picked up another wicket straight after Lewis's exit. North lasted only seven balls before trying to turn to leg and offering a return catch off a leading edge.

Kyle Coetzer did something similar to hand Adams a second wicket, except that this catch lobbed to mid-on, and from 56 for one Durham had slipped to 68 for four.

Gavin Hamilton dug in with Gordon Muchall, who had some early difficulty getting into position for the pull on a slow pitch of low bounce.

He once had to readjust and flat-bat the ball back over the bowler Taylor's head, while a later miscue landed just short of mid-off.

There were also a few edges, but Muchall rode his luck and was playing well on 47 when he thrust his pad down the line of leg stump at Warne's fourth ball. John Steele's raised finger looked like a case of currying favour with super star Warne, although that wasn't the case when Steele turned down a much better shout immediately after Mustard had clobbered a full toss for six wide of long-on.

In Warne's next over Mustard was stumped when he went down the pitch to one pushed through wide of off stump. There was no need to look to attack Warne as he often pulled his quicker ball down short and Mustard could have punished him by standing his ground, as Bridge did once he had carefully played himself in.

He was on five when he pulled Warne for six and he later took ten runs off three balls from the leg-spinner, including two back-foot fours through the covers.

Bridge had three other fours in completing his second championship half-century off 107 balls and enjoyed useful assistance for the last wicket from Onions, who lofted off-spinner Shaun Udal first bounce over the rope at long-off to bring up the 200.

Neil Killeen started the Hampshire rot when he had Michael Brown lbw in his first over, then Plunkett did the rest.

Three of his victims were caught by Mustard, while left-hander Adams steered a catch to Breese at second slip.

The two prize scalps were John Crawley and former Durham batsman Simon Katich. Crawley played back and got a faint edge to an excellent ball, while Katich looked in a different class in driving and pulling his way to 27 before he shaped to steer through gully and readjusted too late to avoid edging to Mustard.