THE Riverside pitch followed the predicted pattern yesterday, flattening out to provide Graeme Hick with the perfect platform to remind Durham fans of his glory years.

Others followed suit, notably left-handed wicketkeeper Steven Davies, who made a season's-best 87 as Worcestershire reached 330 for eight in their second innings, leading by 215 runs.

Having come in at 41 for three, with his side still 74 adrift, Hick helped Ben Smith and Davies add 146 in 24 overs which turned the game.

Durham had to work extremely hard for the five wickets they took in the rest of the day, and while the most vital was that of Hick the two they took in the last six overs provided a huge lift.

Just when he looked like doing some serious damage, a clever piece of bowling by the irrepressible Ottis Gibson snared Hick for 66.

Runs flowed in the afternoon sun and Smith would have kicked himself for giving Ben Harmison a return catch after making 60 before Dale Benkenstein's constant switching of his bowlers paid off again.

Gibson lured Hick into a false sense of security with a short wide one before a well-disguised full-length slower ball drifted from middle to clip off stump.

Hick, 41, regularly used to flay the Durham bowling but since making 200 not out at Riverside in 2001 they have usually removed him for single figures.

Until he was out yesterday he looked in total command in what could be his final championship appearance at Riverside as Worcestershire look certain to be relegated.

With the new ball due after three overs this morning, Durham will hope to knock over the tail and leave themselves to score no more than 250 to win. With time on their side, they should be confident on such a flat pitch.

Davies and Abdul Razzak were threatening to take the game away from Durham after tea, when Liam Plunkett's four overs cost 23 runs.

But Graham Onions tied down Razzak in a tight ten-over spell which cost only 22 and he finally had his reward. The Pakistani survived a huge appeal for caught behind then played all round the next ball, which splattered middle and off.

Clever captaincy from Benkenstein initially undermined Worcestershire's second innings as he brought on Paul Wiseman as early as the ninth over.

With his third ball the off-spinner had Stephen Moore caught at short leg and three balls later visiting captain Vikram Solanki played back to a ball which turned and had him lbw.

Yet as runs began to flow after lunch further success eluded Wiseman, ending the apparent resurrection of the off-spinning art begun by Gareth Batty's six-wicket haul.

Even he had suffered at the end of the Durham innings, seeing his figures decline from six for 61 to six for 106 as Plunkett hit an unbeaten half-century.

Gordon Muchall added a four in the day's first over to his overnight 62, then when Plunkett took a single off Batty Muchall faced one more ball before inexplicably going down the track.

He was bowled and Wiseman almost repeated the mistake before settling down to contribute 34 to a valuable stand of 86.

Plunkett, dropped first ball by Hick at slip off Batty on Wednesday evening, slog/swept and pulled the spinner for two sixes and Wiseman also cleared the mid-wicket boundary.

Razzak tried bowling round the wicket, but when he banged one in Plunkett flat-batted it wide of mid-on almost for six.

Razzak finally had Wiseman caught at the wicket, but the stand had given Durham the psychological boost of a useful lead and put them within sight of a third batting point.

They were three runs short when Onions tried to force Razzak away off the back foot and got an inside edge into his stumps.

Wiseman's wickets sent Worcestershire into lunch on 25 for two and 22 wickets had fallen in four sessions.

But the ease with which Plunkett scored his runs suggested that this was now a strip on which he would rather bat than bowl.

He was unlucky when Hick, on five, bottom-edged a pull over the stumps, otherwise he posed little threat, while Ben Harmison's five overs cost 34 runs, and Wiseman's 12 in the afternoon went for 66.

Smith had ten fours in his run-a-ball 50, the last three in one Harmison over, and he was shaping to drive the same bowler through mid-on before a readjustment offered the return catch.

Davies continued where Smith left off, reaching 50 at the same rate with his 11th four, which was a sliced drive off Plunkett which just evaded the diving Muchall at backward point.

Durham had fed the left-hander's strength, and when Gibson returned and posted two gullies Davies continued to blaze the ball through the off-side.

But it proved his downfall six overs from the close as Wiseman tossed one a little higher and Davies drove it to Muchall at cover.

Wiseman was in his 24th over and had conceded 92 runs since opening with a double wicket maiden.

Worcestershire needed the dangerous Kabir Ali to extend their lead this morning, but in the day's final over he drove at Gibson and edged to Michael Di Venuto at second slip.