DURHAM unveiled a reassuringly composed opener in 20-year-old James Lowe as they set about saving the match against Hampshire at the Rose Bowl yesterday.

Looking totally unfazed by having to face Wasim Akram, Lowe helped skipper Jon Lewis put on 79 for the first wicket in reply to Hampshire's 456.

Ten overs from the close, however, Lewis was surprised by a ball from Ed Giddins which cut back. In trying to withdraw his bat the captain gloved a catch to the wicketkeeper to fall six short of his ninth half-century in 11 innings.

In the next over Gordon Muchall recorded his third duck in seven innings when he played across off-spinner Shaun Udal's quicker ball and was lbw.

Gary Pratt then kept Lowe company to the close, when the opener had faced 132 balls for his 41 out of 107 for two.

Playing some lovely straight drives but concentrating largely on survival, Lowe's debut innings was reminiscent of Michael Gough's five years ago, when he made 62 against Essex.

Just when he was finally threatening to become a fixture in the side, Gough has stayed at home because of a family illness and might now have to wait to get his place back.

Lowe is probably unique in first-class cricket in that both of his first two fours were all-run as the ball stopped just inside the long-off rope.

He initially got off the mark in the fifth over with two to mid-wicket courtesy of a misfield by Shaun Udal and when he first found the boundary with a square drive the ball might have been stopped by a more alert Wasim.

But all gifts were received by Lowe with the same unflappable temperament he showed when playing and missing against Alan Mullally.

Showing good judgement of what to leave, none of the other bowlers particularly troubled him.

Durham were again without Dewald Pretorius, whose four overs on Wednesday morning look likely to be his last for the county this season.

His hamstring strain is not serious, but he will not be keen to risk it in the one remaining game, a Twenty20 Cup tie, before he joins the South Africa squad on Monday week.

With ten overs to go to the new ball when Hampshire resumed on 238 for four, Durham opened up with Muchall and Nicky Phillips.

Saving two of the remaining three seamers for the new ball was understandable, but not unleashing one of them first thing merely meant that Simon Katich and Nic Pothas could comfortably play themselves back in.

Katich, resuming on 101, was not in quite the same commanding form as the previous day and on 106 he gloved an attempted hook off Muchall just out of Phil Mustard's reach down the leg side.

When Liam Plunkett and Neil Killeen took the new ball Durham continued in surprisingly defensive mode as they posted only two slips and no gully.

Katich drove at Plunkett on 111 and sliced at catchable height through gully and when the same bowler struck Pothas a painful blow on the thumb the ball lobbed just wide of the slips.

Plunkett finally had his reward in unconventional fashion when Pothas, after contributing 79 to the stand of 133, went for an upper cut and was caught by substitute Mark Davies at third man.

Katich unleashed a couple of classic cover drives to take his boundary tally to 20, but on 135 he tried to sweep Nicky Phillips and was bowled off his thigh pad.

Two overs later Wasim lunged forward and was bowled by the off-spinner, but if the crowd thought they had been denied the chance of a few fireworks they were mistaken.

Runs had been scored at three an over until this point, but as the depleted Durham attack wilted Udal joined Dimitri Mascarenhas in a stand of 133 in 24 overs.

They reached 400, and the final batting point, three balls before the 130-over cut-off point.

Although Neil Killeen was the most economical bowler, he went wicketless, and when the last three wickets went down rapidly with a declaration looming it was Phillips and Danny Law who were left with four each.

Mascarenhas was eight short of his second century of the season when he tried to force Phillips off the back foot and was lbw and two balls later Mullally found Davies at long-on.

Then Giddins achieved vertical take-off from an attempted pull off Law and Mustard hung on to the steepling catch.

Udal, who scored the fastest 50 of the innings off 66 balls, was left unbeaten on 60.

l Yorkshire may be poised to sign New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming as their second overseas player, writes David Warner.

Although Yorkshire will give no clue as to who they have in mind, the left-handed Fleming is believed to be high up their list.

Meanwhile, Ismail Dawood led from the front with a real captain's innings as Bradford-Leeds Universities' Centre of Excellence took all the honours against Yorkshire at Bradford Park Avenue yesterday

Dawood batted for 214 minutes for his 125 with 16 fours and a six as the University finished 168 behind, but Yorkshire chose not to enforce the follow-on.

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