DURHAM seemed to have done the difficult bit this morning when Phil Mustard and Scott Borthwick saw off Steve Magoffin and Monty Panesar. But after extending their stand to 83 they got out within four balls of each other.

When Callum Thorp swiftly followed three wickets had gone down for one run and Durham reached lunch on 227 for nine, 16 ahead.

Mustard took a few risks and survived a few scary moments in getting to 40 fairly quickly. But he then became unusually restrained and added only five in 12 overs before falling lbw to Chris Nash for 45.

As acting captain Nash bowls only occasional off spin, Mustard might have been tempted to go for it, but he was playing defensively forward when he was out. He hasn’t made a championship half-century since scoring 80 in the first match against Nottinghamshire.

In the next over, the first of the day for Kirk Wernars, Borthwick departed for 35 when he chipped the second ball to short mid-wicket, where Mike Yardy stuck out his left hand to hold the catch. Lunch was delayed with nine wickets down but both Graham Onions and Chris Rushworth were dropped and proceeded to cash in with a flurry of runs. They had put on 24 when rain arrived.