WHEN Martin Love had the dubious honour of becoming Phil Tufnell's 1,000th first-class victim yesterday it was clear that Durham were on the way to an innings defeat inside three days.

Love had just swept the left-arm spinner for four in his first over of the day, but when he shaped to pull the fourth ball it kept low and had him lbw.

The electronic scoreboard at Lord's had not always been right, but Tufnell barely had time to begin his celebrations before the message was flashed up: "Well done, the Cat" with a drawing of a feline face.

The claws were sharpened ready to exploit the dry, cracked pitch and when another ball kept horribly low to bowl Paul Collingwood it was all over bar the miaowing.

Following on 237 behind, Durham subsided to 51 for five before Nicky Peng took the attack to the Middlesex bowlers, just as he did when making his maiden century against them at the Riverside in May.

He dominated a stand of 86 with Danny Law - two more than Durham's previous best for the sixth wicket against Middlesex - and went on to make 66.

It can be a long season for young players, and after totalling six runs in his previous three championship innings Peng had just seen Michael Gough record his third successive championship duck.

But Peng quickly showed his form had not deserted him, hitting ten fours in a 79-ball 50 and adding two more before surrendering to Tufnell.

A top-edged sweep resulted in a lobbed catch to the wicketkeeper, which was a disappointing way to end an excellent innings in which he had taken full advantage of Angus Fraser's leniency.

Considering Durham's plight against the turning ball in both innings, it looked like pre-programmed captaincy when Fraser gave himself and Tim Bloomfield three overs each after lunch.

Anything short outside off stump was cracked to the boundary by Peng and the stand was worth 40 before Fraser made way for Paul Weekes.

The off spinner had done the major damage in the first innings, removing both Love and Collingwood after an untroubled stand of 92.

He also ended yesterday's partnership when Law fell for 27, offering a tame return catch, and the last five wickets went down for 26 runs, Tufnell finishing with five for 46 and eight wickets in the match.

It was all over in the middle of another hot afternoon, Middlesex winning by an innings and 74 runs, taking the maximum of 20 points while Durham gained only two.

Any chance Durham had of saving this match vanished on Saturday morning, when Fraser contributed 41 to an eighth wicket stand of 95 with Ben Hutton.

Fraser looked clearly lbw to James Brinkley on 12, but having given Durham the benefit a couple of dodgy decisions on the first day, Ray Julian turned this one down.

Fraser celebrated by slogging Gough over the short boundary into an unoccupied hospitality box. There had already been several delays for balls going out of shape and now there was a lengthy wait before this one could be retrieved.

A straight six followed off the next ball, and with Hutton completing a painstaking century off 235 balls, Middlesex eased to maximum batting points while denying Durham their third bowling point.

When Law was recalled he took the last two wickets in four balls to finish with five for 94, his second five-wicket haul of the season.

Durham opened with the recalled Jimmy Daley, dropping Gough down to No 6. This was a move of questionable logic as Daley failed as an opener last season and Gough was exposed to spin immediately he came in.

Daley appeared to have got through the most difficult bit in both innings, only to fall lbw to first-change paceman Chad Keegan in both cases.

In the first innings Gough faced 27 balls before being caught off bat and pad off Tufnell, and in the second he suffered a freak first ball dismissal when he played a yorker from Keegan into his foot, only for it to fly forward for a brilliantly-held one-handed return catch.

After three defeats in their last four championship games, Durham have no hope of promotion.

They batted without resolve in this match and skipper Jon Lewis said: "Once the opposition have got over 400 you need to be mentally strong to bat in that situation.

"You have to be tough enough to build an innings the same as if you were batting first, and that's something we don't have at the moment.

"We had to change the top of the order because it wasn't working for Michael. He is the key to the balance of the side with his spin bowling, and that probably kept him in the team.

"We wanted Jimmy back in. He favours the middle order and I'm not sure long-term if opening is right for him. We may have to think again - it's not set in stone.

"Michael has done well in the middle order in the one-dayers and I think he can adjust to that.

"On the first day the bowlers stuck at it well on a very hard day, but in the first session on Saturday we were ordinary. We played as though the first day had taken a lot out of us and if you're not physically strong enough you have to do something about it.

"We then batted like a side who had spent too long in the field, and we can't just gloss over that sort of performance."