THE end came swiftly for Durham at Northampton yesterday as their last four wickets fell in seven balls and they lost by an innings and 85 runs.

They were always going to lose after their first innings batting debacle, but there was resistance from Martin Love with 84, Gordon Muchall with 62 and Wearsiders Phil Mustard and Graham Bridge, who both got into the 30s.

The Sunderland duo had put on 51 for the seventh wicket when the umpires suddenly seemed to fancy an early tea.

Yorkshiremen John Hampshire and Barrie Leadbeater are two of the better officials and had done a good job until Hampshire gave out Mustard, supposedly caught off bat and pad, for 35.

Shoaib Akhtar edged Jason Brown's next ball to slip and Nicky Phillips kept out the hat-trick ball before being harshly adjudged lbw to the next, which looked to be going over the top. Three balls later Leadbeater gave out Neil Killeen to another bat-pad catch off Graeme Swann and Durham were all out for 263.

The off-spinners took eight of the wickets, Brown finishing with five for 90 to follow is seven for 69 in Northants' eight-wicket win at Riverside.

This victory confirmed their promotion with two games left, unless they have points deducted, with Durham now outsiders to gain the third spot after taking only two points from the game.

"We have to win the last two games and we'll go flat out to do it," said coach Martyn Moxon.

"Our first innings batting cost us dear here when we had to make it count because it was a good pitch which was always going to turn as the game progressed.

"It's difficult to know why it happened and it's disappointing because we had topped 300 in each of our previous five games."

Durham have few selectorial options for tomorrow's National League game at Northampton as Nicky Peng is still suffering from a viral infection and Vince Wells is playing league cricket this weekend to test his wrist. Durham will probably want to include one of them at Bristol on Wednesday.

After playing fluently to reach 40 in 13 overs on Thursday evening, Muchall spent 26 overs adding 22 runs yesterday.

He drove Andre Nel wide of mid-on for a handsome four in the second over then concentrated on survival against some testing bowling.

Unfortunately he became totally becalmed once Jon Lewis lost his middle stump to Carl Greenidge for 22, ending an opening stand of 79.

Muchall added only six in 15 overs before he tried to play down a ball from Jeff Cook, which bounced and left him a shade. There was nothing wrong with the shot, but Mark Powell reached low to his right to hold a good catch at second slip.

It was the first of four catches for Powell, with the rest taken off bat and pad.

Brought in because of Peng's illness, Muchall surely did enough to earn retention ahead of Ashley Thorpe, who never threatened permanence as he survived for 15 uncomfortable overs to make four.

Gary Pratt has also yet to master fully the art of playing the turning ball and, pushing forward at Brown, he offered a regulation slip catch to Mike Hussey.

Paul Collingwood departed in Swann's first over. Troubled by the turn of the previous ball, he went back and chipped a catch to wide mid-on.

Love eased comfortably to 50 off 79 balls and had hit eight fours when he departed. The one shot he had not played convincingly was the sweep and he tried it once too often off Brown, who had him caught at deep square leg.

Mustard drove and swept fearlessly and Bridge even more so. He twice swept Brown over mid-wicket for six and was left unbeaten for the second time in the match.

With his future in jeopardy, Phillips was clearly unhappy with his dismissal. He has fallen behind Bridge in the battle for the spinner's spot and must now hope that Durham again play them both at Bristol.

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