DURHAM'S Ben Raine took four wickets for 23 runs from 18 overs to deepen Lancashire’s relegation fears on the first day of the Vitality County Championship match at Riverside.

Raine made the most of bowler-friendly conditions to help reduce Keaton Jennings’ side to 177 for six after 78 overs on a day that was shortened by morning rain.

Home supporters might view that as a decent return in a match played with a Kookaburra ball but Lancashire’s plight could have been vastly worse had not Matthew Hurst made a fine 74 not out and Josh Bohannon added 49 during two long sessions when run-scoring was often difficult.

Raine was well supported by Matthew Potts, who took two for 36, while West Indian bowler, Chemar Holder, endured a testing first day as a Durham bowler, finishing with nought for 53 from his eight overs.  

Persistent drizzle delayed the start of play until 12.50 and it was no surprise that Durham skipper Scott Borthwick chose to bowl first on winning the toss. 

Nor was it particularly startling, given their current form, that Lancashire’s first innings began badly. Raine had Luke Wells caught behind by Ollie Robinson off the first ball of the game and then produced a magnificent delivery which nipped away and bowled Jennings for nine in the ninth over.

Josh Bohannon tucked into three wayward overs from Holder before losing his third-wicket partner, Venkatesh Iyer, with the total on 49 when the Indian all-rounder was caught behind off Potts for seven.

Matty Hurst survived for 36 minutes and 26 balls before scoring his first run but Lancashire’s closest shaves came at the other end where Bohannon edged Potts between the wicketkeeper and first slip and survived a confident appeal for caught behind off Raine, before finally falling for 49 when a thin-edged catch to Robinson gave the Durham seamer his third wicket.

Lancashire got to tea on 96 for four but soon lost George Bell for seven when the number six pulled Potts straight to Holder at midwicket. Although Hurst reached his fourth Championship fifty off 88 balls with seven fours and a six, the visitors soon lost their sixth wicket when George Balderson edged a drive off Raine to Colin Ackermann at second slip and departed for ten.  

Hurst and Tom Hartley then batted with great good sense for over an hour, adding an unbroken 39 in 25 overs to ensure that Lancashire didn’t suffer any further damage before the close, although by that time their side still needed 73 runs to secure their first batting point since July 1.