THE days of being bullied by Graeme Hick in the shadow of Worcester cathedral are long gone and Durham continued to dominate in yesterday’s sunshine.

Worcestershire are the whipping boys of this season’s first division and they closed the second day on 105 for five in reply to 587 for seven declared.

Steve Harmison struck twice in his first four overs on his comeback then had Moeen Ali caught down the leg side by Phil Mustard in the first over of his second spell.

Harmison had three for 29 in 11 overs and will fancy knocking over a flimsy looking tail when the hosts resume today, still 482 behind.

There were two catches by substitute Ben Raine, the second one a sensational effort as Durham surprisingly benefited from an elbow problem developed by Dale Benkenstein.

After missing Monday’s game against Scotland with a sore knee, the aches and pains are beginning to kick in again for Benkenstein and Durham certainly will miss him if he is sidelined.

But the opportunity to give 19-year-old Raine, from Sunderland, a taste of first team action paid dividends.

Deliberately positioned at leg gully by Harmison to exploit a perceived weakness of left-handed opener Matthew Pardoe, Raine hung on to a good low catch.

But his second was even better as Dutchman Alexei Kervezee slapped a short ball from Ben Stokes head high to Raine’s right at point. It was travelling like a shell but he managed to knock the ball up and cling on to it as he fell.

Durham’s total gave them maximum batting points for the third time this season and was their fifth highest in firstclass cricket, with skipper Phil Mustard becoming the third century-maker. When he edged to slip for 101 it was only his second dismissal of the season in the championship and he averages 117.

Following the county’s record fifth-wicket stand of 247 between Gordon Muchall and Ian Blackwell, Mustard put on 154 for the seventh wicket with Scott Borthwick, who was one short of his career-best 68 when the declaration came.

The paucity of Worcestershire’s resources was again underlined by their huge reliance on Damien Wright and Alan Richardson.

They bowled very well for the first hour and Wright knocked out Ian Blackwell’s off stump in the second over when only five had been added to the overnight score.

The Australian beat both Muchall and Mustard with unplayable balls and produced something similar when he returned in early afternoon, beating Borthwick with successive deliveries.

But in the end Wright was one of four bowlers to concede more than 100 runs, although his economy rate was more than twice as good as that of Richard Jones.

Having survived the early test it was a surprise when Muchall was undone by a rare good ball from Jones. He pushed forward and edged to Solanki at first slip to fall for 175.

Mustard had to work hard for his first 20 runs but once Borthwick joined him the contest became increasingly one-sided.

Mustard completed a 69-ball half-century by pulling his fifth four off Jones and hooked Wright for his ninth boundary to reach 100 off 136 deleiveries. Jones’ 15 overs cost 111 runs, whereas Richardson bowled 34 overs for 88 runs.

As soon as the declaration came Harmison was out to limber up as he prepared to take out his frustrations on Worcestershire following his unfortunate injury in the season’s first match.

But he relied on his experience rather than pace and aggression, setting the trap for Pardoe before producing a little extra bounce to have the other lefthanded opener, James Cameron, caught at gully.

Durham had a second substitute on the field at the time as Brathwaite limped off after attempting the sort of diving stop to which he has not been accustomed.

He made a quick recovery and bowled Vikram Solanki for ten with a beauty which trimmed the off bail.

Brathwaite thought he had a second wicket when umpire Michael Gough appeared to nod his head in response to an lbw appeal against debut boy Adrian Shankar.

The bowler was well into his celebrations when he realised that Gough had not actually raised his finger and Shankar was still there on ten at the close.

SCORECARD

Worcestershire v Durham
At New Road.
Overnight: Durham 360-4 (G J Muchall 152
no, I D Blackwell 130 no).
Durham First Innings
G J Muchall c Solanki b R A Jones 175
I D Blackwell b D G Wright134
P Mustard c Solanki b M M Ali 101
S G Borthwick not out 67
C D Thorp not out 22
Extras (b2 lb19 w3 nb6 pens 0) 30
Total 7 wkts dec (136 overs) 587
Fall: 1-24 2-24 3-44 4-118 5-365 6-408
7-562
Did Not Bat: R M R Brathwaite, S J
Harmison.
Score at 130 overs: 6-547
Bonus Pts: Worcestershire 2 Durham 5
Bowling: D G Wright 35-5-118-2.
Richardson 34-6-88-1. R A Jones 15-1-
111-1. Andrew 26-2-109-1. M M Ali 24-0-
128-1. Cameron 2-0-12-0.

Worcestershire First Innings Close
M G Pardoe c Sub b S J Harmison 11
J G Cameron c Thorp b S J Harmison 18
V S Solanki b Brathwaite 10
M M Ali c Mustard b S J Harmison 46
A N Kervezee c Sub b Stokes 1
A Shankar not out 10
G M Andrew not out 6
Extras (w1 nb2 pens 0) 3
Total 5 wkts (41 overs) .105
Fall: 1-20 2-31 3-49 4-50 5-95
To Bat: B J M Scott, R A Jones, A
Richardson, D G Wright.
Bonus Pts: Worcestershire 2 Durham 5
Bowling: S J Harmison 11-2-29-3. Thorp
8-1-30-0. Stokes 9-4-9-1. Brathwaite 7-3-
17-1. Blackwell 4-1-18-0. Borthwick 2-0-2-0.