DURHAM and Husseys are ill-matched bedfellows. As if they hadn't suffered enough at the hands of Michael Hussey last season, an astonishing onslaught by his brother David yesterday wrecked all the excellent work of Mark Davies and Neil Killeen.

With fellow Australian Stuart MacGill, Hussey shared a record last-wicket stand against Durham in first-class cricket and finished unbeaten on 166, which included seven sixes.

Hussey was on 41 when Nottinghamshire were rocking on 153 for eight, but the carnage he wreaked carried them to 325, a lead of 25.

Durham quickly wiped that out, but with their score on 36 for none after seven overs, bad light ended play with 22 overs remaining.

There was always a danger that the lack of back-up in Durham's bowling would be exposed, and so it proved after the new-ball pair had bowled 20 overs each by mid-afternoon.

Davies eventually came back to have MacGill caught by Andrew Pratt off a miscued hook and finished with six for 78.

That took his championship haul this season to 34, seven ahead of second-placed Andrew Caddick, and on most days it would have put Durham into a commanding position.

Killeen bowled equally well until he too felt the force of Hussey's attack and he finished with the extremely unflattering figures of one for 81.

Hussey hit four of his sixes off Gareth Breese, including three in successive balls. The first was over cover, the second was straight and the third - a massive blow wide of long-on - broke the record for the tenth-wicket stand against Durham of 110, set by Yorkshire's Chris Silverwood and Richard Stemp at Riverside in 1996.

Pallav Kumar was also hit for two successive leg-side sixes after he had sparked Nottinghamshire's collapse in the morning by taking two wickets in two balls.

It seemed Jason Gallian and Russell Warren were determined to grind down the new-ball bowlers, knowing there wasn't much else to come.

Killeen and Davies both shaped the ball nicely away from the batsmen, who both edged Killeen just wide of third slip as Durham produced their best session of the season in the field. Both bowlers often beat the bat and the bad luck continued when Kumar came on and in his second over an inside edge off Warren's bat missed off stump by a gnat's whisker.

It took until the 23rd over to bring up the 50, but then Warren began to open up, only to slap a shortish ball from Kumar straight to Gary Pratt at backward point.

Durham probably feared if anyone was going to put them to the sword it would be Kevin Pietersen, but he went first ball, pushing forward and edging Kumar to Paul Collingwood at second slip.

Hussey drove the hat-trick ball through the covers for the first of his 16 fours, but after a brief spell from Collingwood, Davies returned and struck with his third ball.

Gallian pushed forward and a little extra bounce saw the ball hit the shoulder of the bat and fly to Breese at gully.

Davies took his third wicket with the first ball of the second over after lunch when a slower ball deceived Chris Read and had him lbw. Off the last ball of the over he thought he had Hussey caught behind for 16, but the appeal was turned down. Hussey might also have been out for 21, when he took a risky single to Gary Pratt, whose shy missed the stumps.

Still, Davies' golden arm appeared to be in full flow when Paul Franks flicked at a leg-side ball and gave a low catch to Andrew Pratt.

Killeen finally had his reward when more away movement found the edge of Richard Logan's bat, then Greg Smith was bowled by a full-length straight ball to give Davies his third five-wicket haul of the season.

With only two wickets standing when he was joined by Ryan Sidebottom, Hussey began to go for his shots.

He advanced to drive Davies over extra cover for the four which took him to 50, then the recall of Kumar and Collingwood failed to stem the flow.

When Breese came on for the first time in the 59th over Hussey drove him for a straight six and the off-spinner was operating with seven men on the boundary.

The policy of trying to give Hussey a single never looked like working, but Durham persevered with it throughout his stand of 52 with Sidebottom and the last-wicket partnership.

Hussey reached his century off 125 balls then needed only 38 balls for his next 50.

At the end he had faced 171 balls and hit 16 fours and seven sixes.

He also made 76 at Riverside in Nottinghamshire's innings win last month, while his brother had championship scores of 187, 72 not out and 43 for Northamptonshire against Durham last season, plus National League knocks of 112 and 55.

Hussey junior will be 27 in July, but this is only his 22nd first-class match as he had to move from Western Australia to Victoria to get a game back home.

His maiden century was last November and he has since hit six more, including one in his last championship innings against Yorkshire.

As Marcus North got into the Western Australia team ahead of Hussey he will be determined not to be overshadowed and he moved comfortably to 19 before the light closed in.

Franks came on for the final over of the day, in which he looked distinctly lively and troubled Jon Lewis enough for the Durham captain to be happy with the chance to retire.