Killeen misses out on day for swingers

With medium-pacers Jon Moss and Mo Sheikh as their change bowlers, Derbyshire were better equipped to exploit the humid conditions as they reduced Durham to 64 for seven at the close, 131 behind.

Davies' wonderful season touched new heights with a career-best six for 44, stretching his lead as the country's top wicket-taker.

His tally is now 48 in the championship, putting him seven clear of the field and 36 ahead of Killeen, his nearest Durham rival. Given that Killeen's wickets have cost 50 apiece it was hardly surprising that he was not in the squad, but these conditions would have been right up his street.

Davies completed his fourth five-wicket haul of the season in reducing Derbyshire to 88 for seven, but while he was resting Graeme Welch and Ant Botha put on 90 and the visitors had reached 195 before Davies wrapped up the innings by removing Welch for 59.

On a sticky day suited to swing bowling, the only other Durham bowler to profit was Paul Collingwood with two for 27.

Some blame could be attached to the pitch for Durham's demise, with Collingwood having no right to expect such steep bounce from Moss's medium pace.

But generally poor technique against the swinging ball was to blame for both sides' lamentable batting as both wicketkeepers took five catches.

Durham skipper Jon Lewis watched from the other end in increasing despair as he stood firm with 19 not out.

He saw the score plummet from 15 without loss to 53 for seven before Graeme Bridge kept him company for the last nine overs.

Kyle Coetzer was slightly unlucky in that he was caught down the leg side off Sheikh, and Pratt was not too happy when he became the first Durham batsman not to be caught behind.

Derbyshire were appealing for everything by this stage and initially went up for lbw before successfully appealing for a bat-pad catch as the ball lobbed to gully.

Blignaut, who bowled 11 no balls in his 11 overs, completed an unhappy day with a thick edge to gully. It was scant reward for the efforts of Davies, who said: "I was happy to come on first change because the ball started to swing once the lacquer had worn off after 15 overs.

"The the seam started to go but they couldn't find a replacement ball of the same age, so we continued with the same one until lunch, which suited us."

Although he has learnt to move the ball away from right-handers, Davies made two hold their line across left-handers Steve Stubbings and Steve Selwood to give Pratt two of his catches.

He also had Welch and Australian Jon Moss caught by the wicketkeeper, Moss departing second ball, while James Bryant sliced a drive to Gordon Muchall at point and Luke Sutton played on when trying to withdraw his bat.

Davies' previous best was the six for 53 he took against Hampshire at the Rose Bowl in the first match of the season.

He and fellow Teessider Liam Plunkett almost bowled Durham to victory in that match, but Plunkett was the one to stand down from the squad of 12 yesterday.

The troubles in his homeland meant that Blignaut had played little cricket recently and it showed as he sent down three no-balls in the second over.

Two more followed in his next over and with Graham Onions also over-stepping once, Derbyshire's first 12 runs all came from no-balls.

Davies came on for the tenth over and made the breakthrough in the 14th, removing the stubborn Stubbings for eight, made off 43 balls.

When the sides met at Derby at the end of April, Western Australian Chris Rogers made 156 batting at No 3 for Derbyshire, but an injury shortly afterwards ruled him out for the season and they decided to continue with Moss as their only official overseas player.

He has not been a big hit and his loose stroke yesterday summed up the general inability to play the swinging ball.

Hassan Adnan continued the procession by driving wide of off stump at Collingwood and edging to Marcus North at first slip.

Bryant's exit made it 78 for four at lunch, at which point Durham had bowled only 30 overs thanks to Blignaut's eight no-balls in six overs plus a lengthy delay while the ball was changed.

Like the gaps on the terraces, the over-rate emphasised that this was a far cry from Twenty20 cricket, in which teams have 75 minutes to bowl their overs.

Opener Andrew Gait had done better than his middle-order colleagues in switching from Twenty20 mode, but he shaped to drive the fourth ball after lunch and was bowled by Collingwood for 30.

Selwood then drove at a full-length swinger from Davies and edged to Pratt, and after Sutton played on, Botha almost did the same to his first ball.

But the South African, a British passport holder, quickly began to show he is no mug with the bat.

He hit seven fours in making 42 before trying to carve a short, wide ball from Blignaut through the off side and edging to Pratt.

Mo Sheikh went back to a full-length ball from Graeme Bridge and was lbw before Davies ended Welch's 123-ball innings.

Welch was keen to join his native county four years ago, but somehow ended up at Derbyshire and has never failed since to make an impact against Durham.

Normally it is with the ball as he has taken eight wickets in the match on his last two championship appearances at Riverside, including his career-best six for 30 in 2001.

There have also been glimpses of his batting skills, which were highlighted yesterday by a flip for six off his hip off Onions.

An edged four off Davies brought up his 50 off 103 balls, but this was a rare blemish as he was generally untroubled.

The same could not be said for any Durham batsman, with even Lewis surviving a couple of big appeals. But at least he showed the necessary application.

It was all very reminiscent of the contest between these sides at Riverside three years ago, when the first day was washed out and 24 wickets fell on the second before Michael di Venuto hit a match-winning century on the third.

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