Nottinghamshire v Durham (County Championship) : Day Three

AFTER waiting until almost two hours into the third day at Trent Bridge to see Steve Harmison bowl, England selector Geoff Miller would have found the evidence inconclusive yesterday.

As a test of Harmison's fitness for the second Test against Sri Lanka next week everything appeared to go well. He ran in strongly and extracted some life from the placid pitch, but on the day the best fast bowler on view was Graham Onions.

The youngster knocked out left-hander Darren Bicknell's off stump - the fifth opening batsman he has clean bowled this season - and was unlucky that he had to wait until his eighth over for the scalp.

He had Bicknell dropped on 23 by Gordon Muchall at third slip, while Harmison tended to pose more problems for right-hander Jason Gallian.

Gallian negotiated the choppy waters, however, to make 114 as Nottinghamshire replied to Durham's 404 for eight declared with 255 for six.

Harmison had none for 52 in 15 overs but should have had a wicket when he set up New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming only for Mick Lewis to drop a straightforward chance at long leg.

It was an undistinguished day for Lewis, who also bowled poorly until he moved one away late in the day to have Gallian caught by Phil Mustard.

That made it 248 for five and in the next over Chris Read swept Gareth Breese to Muchall at deep mid-wicket.

He was the fourth batsman to get out playing an aggressive shot at the off-spinner, suggesting that Nottinghamshire were not content to play out time in the rain-ruined match.

One option was to declare once they had avoided the follow-on at 255, challenging Durham to set them a target today. But there were only four overs left when they reached that target, at which point bad light forced a halt.

A couple of balls whistled past Gallian's chin as Harmison sent down four overs before lunch.

But if that was the loosening-up exercise on his return to firstclass cricket, the follow-up was blunted by the weather.

No sooner had Harmison bowled the first ball after the interval than the day's third shower arrived. The players quickly returned but after two more balls another squall sent them as far as the pavilion steps before they returned again.

Eight balls later there was another shower and when the action resumed Harmison's final two overs proved quite expensive before he rested with figures of 82-28-0.

He was quickly in action in the morning after Mustard fell to the day's fourth ball - the first one he faced.

Knowing that the weather forecast meant they were unlikely to force a victory, Durham batted on into the third day.

Resuming on 332 for six, they had 15 overs to score the 68 runs needed for the maximum of five batting points and Mustard's immediate exit appeared to be a blow.

But Harmison contributed 18 to a stand of 51 in nine overs with Ottis Gibson, who went on to thrash an unbeaten 49 off 47 balls with eight fours and a mighty straight six.

There had already been two breaks for rain, costing 11 overs, when Gibson launched Andrew Harris into the seating and the ball came back damaged, causing another hold-up.

Harmison joined in the fun by straight driving successive balls from Harris for four - the first along the ground and the second clearing the rope on the first bounce.

Harris didn't appear to relish having to bowl with the blustery wind coming from his right and he probably wasn't impressed when Gibson, on 35, edged him through the vacant first slip area.

Fleming went straight back in to the position he had just vacated - after his decision to put Durham in this was another blemish on his reputation as an astute captain.

Durham had their target down to 16 runs in six overs when Mark Ealham replaced Paul Franks and Harmison tamely offered him a return catch.

Most of Gibson's runs came from booming drives but there were also a couple of ferocious cuts, including the one off Harris which brought up the 400 in the 128th over and immediately prompted the declaration.

Nottinghamshire reached 34 without loss in nine overs at lunch, by which time it seemed the rest of the match would be nothing more than an exercise in collecting bonus points.

The on-off saga after lunch could have done little for Harmison's enthusiasm, but Onions' continuing threat saw him left on for 11 overs.

When Lewis replaced Harmison his first over went for 14 runs, but Gibson posed more threat when he came on for Onions and Gallian, on 35, immediately edged him just wide of the slips.

After five modest overs Lewis was replaced by Breese, who immediately troubled former Durham University captain Will Smith.

But both batsmen continued to accumulate without looking dominant, and Gallian had ten fours in reaching 50 off 80 balls.

The slog/sweep brought some success off Breese, but when Smith tried it on 41 he hit a catch straight to Gary Pratt at midwicket. Onions had another brief burst after tea before being replaced by Harmison, who almost had Gallian on 79 with a yorker which was dug out and just squeezed past leg stump.

In his next over came the dropped catch by Lewis, but Fleming immediately surrendered at the other end. He advanced looking to lift Breese back over his head but skied a catch to Pratt at cover.

David Hussey also seemed unwilling to settle in for a long innings, immediately trying to drive Breese and getting an inside edge just past his leg stump.

Another ball which turned defeated the same stroke to bowl him four overs later, but not before he had driven Breese for a huge six in racing to 15.

Harmison cranked up his pace towards the end of his seven-over second spell and there were a couple of frenzied appeals before he briefly retired to the pavilion and Gallian cut Breese for the single which brought up his 176ball century.

Lewis improved once he had removed Gallian, preventing Nottinghamshire from reaching their 255 target more quickly.

They did reach it, making a declaration a possibility, but what happens on the final day could be dictated by the weather.

Scorecard

Nottinghamshire v Durham at Trent Bridge.

Overnight: Durham 332-6 (G J Muchall 88, D M
Benkenstein 73, J J B Lewis 61).

Durham First Innings
P Mustard c Read b Harris 19
(pushed forward, edged to keeper, balls18, 4-4s)
O D Gibson not out 49
(b47, 8-4s, 1-6)
S J Harmison c & b Ealham 18
(spooned return catch, b29, 3-4s)
G Onions not out 4
(b6, 1-4)
Extras (b2 lb2 w1 nb12 pens 0) 17
Total 8 wkts dec (127.2 overs) 404
Fall: 1-62 2-165 3-196 4-260 5-307 6-318 7-
333 8-384
Did Not Bat: M L Lewis.
Bowling: Sidebottom 22-5-65-0. Harris 33.2-7-
133-2. Ealham 24-10-53-3. Franks 20-0-83-2.
Swann 28-6-66-0.

Nottinghamshire First Innings Close
D J Bicknell b Onions 40
(ball nipped in, balls50, 6-4s)
J E Gallian c Mustard b M L Lewis 114
(pushed forward, ball moved away, b190, 18-4s, 1-6)
W R Smith c G J Pratt b Breese 41
(slog/sweep to mid-wicket, b85, 6-4s)
S P Fleming c G J Pratt b Breese 7
(skied leading edge to cover, b17)
D J Hussey b Breese 15
(ball turned through drive, b8, 1-4, 1-6)
C M Read c Muchall b Breese 23
(swept to deep mid-wicket, b31, 2-4s, 1-6)
M A Ealham not out 7
(b10, 1-4)
P J Franks not out 0
(b7)
Extras (lb4 nb4 pens 0) 8
Total 6 wkts (66 overs) 255
Fall: 1-52 2-163 3-175 4-204 5-248 6-248
To Bat: G P Swann, R J Sidebottom, A J Harris.
Bonus Pts: Nottinghamshire 2 Durham 5
Bowling: Onions 14-2-49-1. Harmison 15-4-52-
0. M L Lewis 9-0-42-1. Gibson 8-2-31-0. Breese
20-4-77-4.