IT WAS like the bad old days at Riverside yesterday as ball dominated bat to a ridiculous extent and 16 wickets fell in 65 overs before a semblance of sanity settled Durham’s nerves.

After gaining a first-innings lead of 128, they were rocking on ten for four when Ian Blackwell went in and rode a spot of good fortune to reach 65 not out.

He was on 18 when he survived the easiest of chances to wicketkeeper Luke Sutton off Andrew Flintoff, then he topedged a pull off Oliver Newby over the slips.

Blackwell steadied the ship in a stand of 30 with Gordon Muchall, and with only two more wickets going down in the final 28 overs Durham closed on 122 for six, 240 ahead. Callum Thorp contributed 19 to an unbroken stand of 65.

The bowlers have often held sway in meetings between Durham and Lancashire, and even on the traditionally good Old Trafford surface Durham dismissed their hosts for 143 last year but still lost by 232 runs.

The year before, at Blackpool, the pitch was partly to blame for the low scoring, but after the first day’s play in this match Andrew Flintoff observed: “This is a good pitch and if we can get a big total we can put Durham under pressure.”

As it turned out, Lancashire were dismissed for 116, their lowest championship total against Durham, lowering their 134 in another low-scoring Riverside match in 2000.

Only Yorkshire, when Hoggard, Rana and Bresnan are all playing, can match the seam attacks fielded by the current Riverside combatants and the only explanation for yesterday’s events was that the bowling was much better than the batting.

The first two men to fall for Lancashire might argue differently as they appeared to be in argumentative mood and a less tolerant umpire might have reported them for dissent.

Australia-born Paul Horton and South African Ashwell Prince both showed a huge reluctance to depart when given out by umpire Neil Mallender.

It is certainly not the way to earn an umpire’s favour and he also gave out Mal Loye lbw, although on this occasion the batsman was turning to leave almost before the finger went up.

Those first three wickets all went to Graham Onions, continuing his purple patch in another superb display. Both he and Steve Harmison finished with four wickets and there were four catches for Phil Mustard to add to his half-century in the morning.

Onions also continued his habit of striking in the first over of a spell. Having done it three times in the win against Hampshire, he removed Horton with the second ball of the innings, caught down the leg side by Mustard.

The nonplussed batsman indicated the ball had brushed his shirt, and appeared to say something to Mallender, but the catch continued a great start to the day for the Mustard and Onions partnership.

There was no sign of the clatter to come as they added 32 runs when Durham resumed on 212 for eight.

After having to dig in on the first day, Mustard relished the chance to play a few shots while also trying to farm the strike.

He called Onions through for a cheeky single off the first ball of a Flintoff over.

Lancashire appeared to be getting rattled as Francois du Plessis shied at the stumps and conceded four overthrows.

Mustard, 31 overnight, reached 50 off 93 balls but added only one more before he was caught at third man off Flintoff, who then had Harmison caught at second slip.

This was an unwanted hattrick for Harmison as it was the third successive time he had been out first ball and it would be little consolation to receive a reassuring pat from Flintoff, who finished with four for 47.

Although Flintoff made three runs, Harmison returned the favour when he forced his pal to play on off the fifth ball after lunch.

With Mitch Claydon striking twice in three balls, only du Plessis offered much resistance before falling for 41 to the first ball of Harmison’s second spell. He tried to pull what was just a gentle loosener and gloved a leg-side catch to Mustard.

When Durham batted again they blocked out three maidens before Michael Di Venuto tried to pull Sajid Mahmood and lobbed a catch to mid-on.

Two overs later Mark Stoneman edged the same bowler to Flintoff at second slip, and it became three for three in the 12th over when Will Smith edged Mahmood to Sutton.

Flintoff’s opening six-over burst cost only one run and when Glen Chapple replaced him he had Dale Benkenstein caught in the slips for the second time in the match.

Flintoff’s only reward in the second innings was to have Mustard caught behind, but he had conceded only seven runs off ten overs until Blackwell took ten off his 11th.

Without Liam Plunkett, Durham’s tail looks a little long, but Thorp provided stubborn support in the final 13 overs, although he was dropped by Chapple at deep mid-on off left-arm spinner Gary Keedy.

Scoreboard

Durham v Lancashire At Riverside

Overnight: Durham 212-8.

Durham First Innings

P Mustard c du Plessis b Flintoff ...........51

G Onions not out ....................12

S J Harmison c Loye b Flintoff .............. 0

Extras (b2 lb10 w9 nb14 pens 0) 35

Total (69.5 overs) ...................244

Fall: 1-42 2-84 3-84 4-117 5-143 6-166 7-172 8-203 9-244

Bowling: Chapple 25-5-58-3. Mahmood 14- 4-62-2. Flintoff 15.5-3-47-4. Newby 15-2-65-1.

Lancashire First Innings

P J Horton c Mustard b Onions ............. 0

M B Loye lbw b Onions .........................14

A G Prince lbw b Onions .......................17

F du Plessis c Mustard b S J Harmison ...41

M J Chilton c Stoneman b S J Harmison ...2

A Flintoff b S J Harmison ...................... 3

L D Sutton c Thorp b Claydon ...............21

G Chapple c Mustard b Claydon ........... 0

S I Mahmood c Mustard b S J Harmison ...7

O J Newby c Blackwell b Onions .......... 1

G Keedy not out ..................... 0

Extras (b4 lb4 nb2 pens 0) ..........10

Total (43.1 overs) ...................116

Fall: 1-4 2-34 3-37 4-48 5-56 6-83 7-83 8-115 9-116

Bowling: Onions 13-4-40-4. S J Harmison 14.1-5-28-4. Claydon 9-4-19-2. Thorp 7-2-21- 0.

Durham Second Innings Close

M D Stoneman c Flintoff b Mahmood ... 2

M J Di Venuto c Newby b Mahmood ..... 0

W R Smith c Sutton b Mahmood ........... 1

G J Muchall lbw b Newby ......................18

D M Benkenstein c Prince b Chapple ... 1

I D Blackwell not out .........................65

P Mustard c Sutton b Flintoff ............. 7

C D Thorp not out .........................19

Extras (lb6 w1 nb2 pens 0).......... 9

Total 6 wkts (43 overs)...........122

Fall: 1-0 2-2 3-3 4-10 5-40 6-57

To Bat: M E Claydon, G Onions, S J Harmison.

Bonus Pts: Durham 4 Lancashire 3

Bowling: Flintoff 12-8-17-1. Mahmood 10-5- 20-3. Chapple 9-2-33-1. Newby 6-0-26-1.

Keedy 5-0-19-0. du Plessis 1-0-1-0.