Love's injury deepens sad Durham's despair

Batting as though utterly demoralised by the broken thumb Love suffered in the field, they were all out for 86 in the C & G Trophy fourth-round tie at Riverside.

After putting the visitors in, Durham did well to restrict Lancashire to 36 runs off the last ten overs and a total of 229 for nine did not look beyond them.

But inside four overs they were 16 for four, and with Love unable to bat, the contest was over.

"It was obviously a huge blow to lose him," said skipper Jon Lewis. "I can't believe we are without three top players so early in the season, but we just have to get on with it.

"We thought 230 was gettable, but we lost it in the first ten overs of our innings, when our batting wasn't good enough.

"It was a big game, but if young players want to play for Durham they are going to have to play in big games in the future."

It was on June 12 last year that Love broke the little finger of his right hand so badly in trying to take a slip catch that six weeks later he had to be ruled out for the season.

His replacement, Brad Hodge, broke a thumb in the nets five days after his arrival to cap 2002's astonishing catalogue of injuries, which has continued this year.

There are fears that Paul Collingwood's shoulder injury could keep him out for the season, while they had to go into yesterday's match without back injury victim Vince Wells.

It was again in trying to take a slip catch that Love suffered the injury to his right thumb. He has had only two innings, scoring 54 and 41, since arriving from his duties with the Australian Test squad in the West Indies.

The respective line-ups suggested Lancashire were keener to win than Durham as they sprang a surprise by including Andrew Flintoff purely as a a batsman.

While Durham insisted they were confident about their chances, the decision to send Danny Law, Andrew Pratt and Michael Gough in search of form in a four-day second-team match at Blackpool suggested their priorities lay elsewhere.

This was fair enough, as they were never going to win the C & G Trophy, but the best-laid plans appear to have been scuppered by a poor pitch at Blackpool, while little was learnt about the youngsters pitched into the Riverside clash.

Pratt's deputy, Phil Mustard, kept wicket very competently but was out first ball when sent in to open, while all-rounder Ian Pattison looked out of his depth.

He took none for 38 in six overs and was out for five when tamely pushing a return catch to England's Jimmy Anderson.

At 26 for six there were visions of Durham recording the lowest total in the national knockout cup. But Nicky Peng took them past Ireland's 39 all out at Hove in 1994 when he cracked Glen Chapple square for four to reach 23 out of 42. Durham's worst in the competition as a minor county was 82 against Worcestershire at the Chester-le-Street club ground in 1968, but this was lowest as a first-class county, being five fewer than they made against Hampshire at Riverside in 2000.

Other than the absences of key men, there were no particular excuses yesterday. There was some movement in the clammy atmosphere, but all three of Anderson's wickets came from poor shots.

Mustard drove with a diagonal bat at Anderson's second ball, which was well wide of off stump, and edged it to Flintoff at second slip. Gordon Muchall signalled his intention to take on his ECB Academy colleague from last winter by making room to drive him over cover for four.

But that was his only scoring shot before he cracked a long hop to backward point.

Peter Martin struck twice with good balls in the fourth over as Gary Pratt pushed forward and edged to wicketkeeper Warren Hegg, then Jon Lewis was lbw first ball.

Pattison was next to go and in the eighth over Martin also took a third wicket when Nicky Phillips edged to Hegg.

A double change eased the pressure, with Martin being replaced by 21-year-old Bolton-born seamer Sajid Mahmood, who was preferred to former Durham bowler John Wood.

Peng and Neil Killeen put on 53 before Killeen was bowled by Chapple for 18. Peng went for 44 when he tried to carve Mahmood over cover for six and was caught just inside the rope by Stuart Law.

Dewald Pretorius edged the next ball to second slip and it was all over. Durham recovered well in the field once they removed Flintoff for 31, made off 29 balls. While he and Carl Hooper were adding 61 in nine overs for the fourth wicket there was a danger of Lancashire making 280, but when Flintoff skied an attempted pull off Pretorius to Mustard the entertainment dwindled. Hooper had driven Phillips for two sixes and added a third when he pulled Stephen Harmison in front of mid-wicket.

But after making the top score of 61 off 72 balls, the former West Indies captain drove a sharp return catch to Harmison, who did well to cling on and did his England one-day chances no harm with two for 37.

Pretorius, who began by bowling Mal Loye in the third over, finished with the best figures of three for 32, while Killeen twice rattled the stumps at the death.

Read more about Durham County Cricket Club here.