Mustard helps Durham build a steady lead

ON a day for laying foundations at the Emirates ICG, Durham built shakily on a firm base until Phil Mustard supplied some steel.

While work on a new stand had just started next to the scoreboard, a much more solid platform than might have been expected was laid after Durham were put in by leaders Middlesex.

But from 108 for one they slipped to 149 for five before Mustard's 62 took them to 259, to which the visitors replied with 11 for two.

Graham Onions knocked back Sam Robson's off stump with the sixth ball of the reply and six balls later Callum Thorp had Australian left-hander Chris Rogers lbw.

Mustard was on 48 when Thorp and Mark Wood fell to successive deliveries with the new ball from Corey Collymore.

Left with only Onions for company, the wicketkeeper clobbered James Harris back over his head for a straight four to reach 50 off 97 balls then stepped back to loft both bowlers to the extra cover boundary before holing out at long-on.

Collymore, 35, finished with four for 61 on the ground where he played the last of his 30 Tests for the West Indies six years ago - a match in which Paul Collingwood made 128 in England's seven-wicket win.

Ground development has slowed since then because of funding difficulties, but the new stand will add 5,500 permanent seats ahead of the Ashes Test on August 9-13.

Durham have been assured that the work will be completed in two months and it is being financed by the loans of £2.8m each from Durham County Council and the Local Enterprise Partnership.

While those sitting on the other side of the scoreboard were able to enjoy a reasonable amount of sunshine yesterday few felt able to remove their coats. And the return to early season conditions meant that batting was expected to be tough.

It was toughest when Middlesex bowled with extra purpose after lunch, prompting Durham's slide, although they didn't help themselves with a few loose shots.

The leaders did not excel in the morning without London-born Tim Murtagh, who has opted to take up his qualification for Ireland through his grandparents. He is playing in two one-day internationals against Pakistan in Dublin this week.

Durham failed to capitalise on three dropped catches, with skipper Collingwood surviving an edge off the first ball he faced only to miscue the second to mid-wicket.

All looked well when Scott Borthwick pulled Gareth Berg for his ninth four to reach an 86-ball half-century and bring up the 100 stand with Keaton Jennings for the second wicket.

But Borthwick drove at the next ball and edged to wicketkeeper John Simpson, who took a good catch low to his left.

Jennings, dropped on 25, progressed to 38 before he was adjudged lbw to Collymore, who was bowling round the wicket and moved one sharply enough to raise doubt about whether it would have hit leg stump. After lengthy deliberation Martin Bodenham decided it would.

The participants in an excellent stand had departed in successive overs, then Will Smith and Ben Stokes rebuilt carefully for 11 overs before two more wickets went down.

Stokes survived a straightforward chance to Dawid Malan at first slip off James Harris on 11 but added only eight before inside edging a drive off the same bowler to be well caught by Simpson, diving to his right.

Collingwood became Harris's second victim, attempting to pull, before Smith and Mustard steadied the ship in a stand of 55.

Batting was beginning to look straightforward when Smith, having grafted for 107 balls to make 37, drove at a gentle away swinger from Gareth Berg and edged to first slip.

Gareth Breese repeated the error against the even gentler offerings of Neil Dexter and edged to the wicketkeeper.

Once the new ball was taken Thorp was all at sea against Collymore and had his leg stump knocked back, then Wood was lbw to the next ball.

They could take solace from the fact that the Middlesex openers were unable to survive against a shiny red conker and as the cement is poured in over the boundary Durham will hope to reduce their visitors to rubble today.

SCORECARD

Durham v Middlesex
At Emirates Durham ICG.
Durham First Innings
M D Stoneman c Simpson b Collymore 5
K K Jennings lbw b Collymore ............38
S G Borthwick c Simpson b Berg ........52
W R Smith c Malan b Berg ...................37
B A Stokes c Simpson b Harris ............19
P D Collingwood c Berg b Harris ......... 1
P Mustard c Roland-Jones b Harris ....62
G R Breese c Simpson b Dexter .......... 9
C D Thorp b Collymore ...................... 4
M A Wood lbw b Collymore ................ 0
G Onions not out .............................. 0
Extras (lb13 nb14 pens 5) ......32
Total (85.2 overs) ..................259
Fall: 1-7 2-108 3-114 4-145 5-149 6-
204 7-230 8-245 9-245
Bowling: Harris 18.2-3-46-3. Collymore 19-
5-61-4. Berg 18-3-42-2. Roland-Jones 17-
5-52-0. Smith 5-0-25-0. Dexter 8-0-15-1
Middlesex First Innings Close
C J Rogers lbw b Thorp ...................... 3
S D Robson b Onions ........................ 0
J L Denly not out ............................... 4
T M Smith not out ............................. 2
Extras (lb2 pens 0)....................2
Total 2 wkts (8 overs)..............11
Fall: 1-1 2-3
To Bat: D J Malan, N J Dexter, J A Simpson,
G K Berg, J A R Harris, T S Roland-
Jones, C D Collymore
Bowling: Onions 4-0-5-1. Thorp 4-1-4-1.