A FIRST century for three years for Gordon Muchall was reason for joyous celebration, but there would be some at Hove on Saturday who felt that in allowing him to compile it as he did, Durham killed the game.

In truth, barring a sudden return to top form from Steve Harmison, they had little chance of winning as yet again a flat pitch dictated that the game ended in stalemate.

More urgency could have been shown in the morning, when Muchall scored one run in the first hour, but the safety-first mindset of English cricket is deeply ingrained. And it won Durham the title last season.

With eight wickets standing, and powerful strikers at six, seven and eight, most spectators who turned up on a sunny day would have expected them to go for a lead of 320 at lunchtime and declare then.

Instead the usual cat-andmouse ensued with Sussex bowling negatively and Durham not prepared to throw away wickets and risk defeat. They added 97 runs in 33 overs to lunch, then 38 in seven afterwards before declaring on 299 for four, setting Sussex a target of 317 in 56 overs.

What usually happens in such situations is that the opposition shut up shop once they have lost two early wickets. So it was almost counter-productive for Harmison and Callum Thorp to take a wicket each and have Sussex rocking on 16 for two.

They didn’t fall back totally on defence, however, and on 92 for three at tea Rory Hamilton-Brown and Luke Wright must have felt they could still win as both surrendered immediately afterwards, driving at Liam Plunkett. On 114 for five there were not going to be any more reckless strokes, and on what remained a sound pitch Durham were unable to prise out first innings century-maker Andrew Hodd and opener Chris Nash.

After 26 overs without taking a wicket a halt was called with six remaining and Sussex on 169 for five, with Nash unbeaten on 85.

So for the third time in three championship games Durham had to settle for a draw in a match in which they held the upper hand.

The fine pre-season weather has resulted in pitches lacking the juice which would normally help Durham’s seam attack at this time of year.

Muchall, having reached 51 in fairly sprightly style overnight, scored 20 in the first hour and threequarters then finally blossomed in the last 15 minutes before lunch. He used his feet to drive off-spinner Ollie Rayner down the ground for two fours and he was on 89 at the break. He completed his century with a straight six of Nash’s occasional offspin, while Ian Blackwell contributed 39 to their unbroken stand of 88.

Earlier, despite Corey Collymore and Robin Martin-Jenkins bowling well wide of the stumps, Michael Di Venuto tried to keep the score moving, scoring 28 of the day’s first 29 runs off the bat to complete his second championship hundred of the season.

He fell for 103 when he edged one of Martin- Jenkins’ swingers to the wicketkeeper, then Dale Benkenstein perished for seven trying to move the score along.

He cut Collymore fiercely to backward point, where substitute Carl Hopkinson held a good catch.

Despite having taken his hat-trick at Hove when bowling down the hill last season, Harmison chose to bowl from the sea end in the first innings to gain some benefit from the wind.

On Saturday it had died, so he came downhill and seemed to have found some of the rhythm which he admits has been lacking.

In his second over Michael Yardy sliced to point, where Liam Plunkett made a difficult catch look easy, then Thorp swung one in to bowl Ed Joyce.

But although Harmison continued to look threatening for a while, there was no more success until the score reached 71, when Mitch Claydon had Murray Goodwin lbw.

Hamilton-Brown raised Durham’s hopes when he drove Plunkett’s first ball after tea straight to Dale Benkenstein at cover, then Wright drove wide of off stump and edged to Muchall at slip. But the sixth-wicket pair rarely looked like being parted.