AFTER the Trent Bridge floods had been repelled Durham skipper Jon Lewis promised a torrent of his own yesterday.
But after launching the innings with a rapid 56 against Nottinghamshire, his exit dramatically turned the tide and Durham finished the first day on 148 for five after 43 overs.
Winning the toss prior to a 3.30 start, Lewis gambled on batting only to see the promised riches ebb away after an opening stand of 92.
The bowling became extremely ragged after tea, but Nottinghamshire tightened up once they got the breakthrough and there was enough movement to make batting a testing occupation in the final hour.
After scoring 16 in 11 overs before tea, Lewis must have been convinced he had made the right decision as he needed only a further ten overs to reach his half-century.
He added a tenth four before he got carried away by his own momentum. Dabbling at a ball he could have left, he edged a catch to the wicketkeeper to end a stand which was 32 more than Durham's best opening partnership in the championship last season.
Rain had fallen from 11pm on Tuesday to 6am yesterday and the Nottinghamshire groundstaff said play would have been written off for the day but for the new sheeting which covered most of the outfield.
Starting at 6.30, they removed 12,000 gallons of water and play began in sunshine, but not with much hope of the match surviving without further interruptions, according to the club's weather forecaster. There are too many sun spots for settled weather at the moment, he claims, but apparently we should have an excellent summer in 2007!
Michael Gough should be just about at his peak by then and will have learnt how to build on his promising starts.
He looked set for something substantial yesterday, but on 34 he drove at a ball from Paul Franks which left him and took the edge on its way to second slip.
Martin Love survived an lbw appeal second ball to put away several loose deliveries without looking as comfortable as in his two innings against Gloucestershire at the Riverside.
On 23 he stepped back and offered no stroke to a ball from 22-year-old Yorkshireman Gareth Clough which nipped back to have him lbw.
Like Richard Logan, recruited from Northamptonshire, Clough bowls at little more than medium pace, and both looked innocuous in their first spells.
But Logan returned to take two wickets in the last half hour, swinging one through the gate to hit off stump as Jimmy Daley shaped to drive through the off side.
Durham sent in Neil Killeen as nightwatchman, but after surviving a sharp chance to second slip he fended rather timidly at a ball which Logan dug in and from high on the bat it lobbed back to the bowler.
Paul Collingwood survived a big lbw appeal from Paul Franks on his way to 15 not out and Durham will need him to build on that in partnership with Nick Speak.
The only threat initally from the bowlers came from Greg Smith, the left-armer from Northern Transvaal, whose father was a Cornish fisherman before emigrating to South Africa.
He offered Lewis some tasty bait with his second ball, a long hop which Lewis punched to the cover boundary.
But Smith made a few balls bounce and leave the batsmen, once beating the wicketkeeper as well as Gough with a wicked delivery which produced four byes.
Gough made one in the first six overs but then pulled Franks emphatically for four and tucked him off his legs behind square for another boundary in the same over.
Both on 16 at tea, the batsmen profited from the lack of a third man as they started their spree after the break.
Lewis then took three fours off Logan in the 20th over, clipping a full toss past square leg, cracking a short ball through the covers and slicing the third through point.
His ninth four took him to 50 off 70 balls, but Smith's return at the Pavilion End proved his undoing, coupled perhaps with a dash of impetuosity which he soon had reason to regret
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