Old boy Katich piles on agony for Durham

Michael Gough didn't travel to Hampshire because of a family illness, Vince Wells had still not recovered from his back injury, and after bowling four overs Dewald Pretorius limped off with a hamstring strain.

Amid growing talk of curses, a ghost from the past then returned to haunt Durham in the shape of Simon Katich, whose unbeaten 101 took Hampshire to 238 for four before rain returned after 80 overs.

"To say we are having dreadful luck would be putting it mildly," said coach Martyn Moxon. "It is unbelievable."

With four top-order batsmen missing, plus Ian Pattison, 20-year-old James Lowe was brought in for his debut.

Born in Suffolk, he went to school in Northallerton and played for Middlesbrough before making his Durham second Xl debut last August.

In five games he topped the averages with 266 runs at 33.25.

Durham have shown in their last two games how triumph can be fashioned from adversity, and Danny Law threatened something similar yesterday, only to be undermined by lack of support.

Law would not have played had Pattison been fit, but with the ball swinging in the heavy atmosphere he produced a spell of three for ten in 18 balls after lunch.

Hampshire, who chose to bat when play began at noon, slipped from 36 without loss to 61 for three, but Katich never looked in the remotest danger.

The dapper left-hander scored 1,089 runs at 43.56 for Durham in 2000 and might still be with them had he not been selected for the Australian tour squad the following year.

Apart from those he left alone, Katich seemed to have a stroke for every ball on his way to a fluent half-century off 67 balls. He then throttled back to make sure of reaching his first century for his new county, reaching the target off 172 balls.

Classy cuts, both orthodox and late, drives through the covers and straight down the ground, and sweetly-timed flicks off his legs kept Katich's score moving.

In Pretorius' absence there was little to test him. Neil Killeen, lucky to be preferred again to Mark Davies, rarely got past the bat.

Until he tightened up in the evening, Nicky Phillips bowled a poor ball every over, leaving 18-year-old Liam Plunkett to provide the main threat other than Law's productive spell.

But the Teessider was out of luck and by the time he came back for his fourth spell wicketkeeper Nic Pothas was in full cry.

South Africa-born and raised, he is a Greek passport holder and does not need to be classed as an overseas player.

With Wasim Akram to come, the dice seem heavily loaded against the Durham boys.

Pothas came to the crease averaging 87 from his seven first-class innings this season and quickly hoisted Phillips just short of the makeshift scoreboard wide of long-on. This had been set up because the main board wasn't working, prompting fears of an epidemic as the same thing happened at Headingley on Sunday. Let's hope the virus doesn't reach Riverside this morning.

Law was also involved in the fourth wicket as a good throw from fine leg ran out Will Kendall for 33 after he had put on 90 with Katich.

But from 156 for four at tea the threadbare Durham attack looked increasingly impotent as Pothas eased to 50 off 89 balls balls and Katich proceeded serenely to his hundred.

It was not so easy after the morning rain as it took Derek Kenway until the ninth over to get off the mark by edging Killeen for four.

Kenway added only four more in the 18 overs to lunch then edged Law to wicketkeeper Phil Mustard immediately afterwards.

In Law's next over, skipper John Crawley shaped to turn him to mid-wicket but was beaten by the swing and fell lbw.

When Robin Smith edged low to Gordon Muchall at third slip Durham were on top, but with Kendall on one he edged Plunkett to the right of first slip, where Lowe dived and failed to hang on.

Unfortunately for the debut boy, it proved a turning point and by the close a third successive win for Durham was looking beyond them.

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