DURHAM'S drubbing of woeful Warwickshire was held up by rain and another injury to Steve Harmison yesterday.

But in the 15 overs which were possible they made good progress, three of the four wickets they took going to Ben Stokes, while Michael Di Venuto held three good catches at second slip.

Warwickshire slipped to 35 for three in their second innings, so Durham will need to take seven wickets today to secure the maximum of 24 points for the third time in seven games and keep the pressure on Lancashire.

With the leaders due at Chester-le-Street on Sunday, they gave themselves some extra time off by wrapping up a ten-wicket at the Rose Bowl early yesterday. With five wins out of six they have a game in hand on second-placed Durham and are currently 19 points ahead.

A win today will cut the gap to three and Durham will hope that Harmison's back strain does not prevent him from finally being reunited with Graham Onions on Sunday.

Such is the gulf between the sides at Edgbaston that Durham secured the full hand of eight bonus points, while the hosts have managed one and it will be a travesty if Durham are denied by further rain or even by belated Warwickshire resistance.

It will not be coming from Mohammad Yousuf. The Pakistani Test batsman suffered the rare indignity of bagging a king pair and the handful of Warwickshire members present would be questioning whether he is worth the outlay at a time when £20m has been borrowed for stadium redevelopment.

When the sides met at Emirates Durham he scored 25 in the first innings then departed third ball in the second, attempting a reckless shot off Scott Borthwick.

He showed his class in making 74 not out in Warwickshire's CB 40 win against Durham on Sunday. But in the first innings of this match he clipped Harmison straight to square leg then second time around a hint of in-swing from Stokes was enough to have him lbw.

The players trooped off for the final time at 5.50 because of bad light and it was a surprise when the umpires decided five minutes later that there would be no further play. There were still supposed to be 15 overs available and it seemed premature to decide that the light would not improve.

Only eight balls were bowled in the morning after play began an hour late. It was enough for Stokes to take the final first innings wicket and finish with four for 48 without addition to the overnight total.

The man out was Andrew Miller, the replacement for Boyd Rankin, who was two not out overnight but had to fly off to Dublin to play for Ireland against Pakistan.

After a maiden from Scott Borthwick, Stokes' first ball was almost a wide, but his second was closer to off stump, Miller fenced at it and edged to Phil Mustard. The wicketkeeper deflected it to his right, where the alert Di Venuto dived forward from second slip to hold the catch.

Warwickshire were all out for 186, 416 behind, and Durham stayed out in the middle while they waited for the home batsmen to re-emerge for the follow-on.

But while the bowlers limbered up more black clouds rolled over, the rain returned and the continuing heavy showers prevented any further play until 3.15.

Harmison bowled five balls, the last of which flew down the leg side for four wides, then the heaviest rain of the day arrived.

Play resumed at 4.45 without Harmison and in the second over Varun Chopra tried a forcing back-foot shot off Callum Thorp and edged a very sharp catch to Di Venuto's left.

He held a more straightforward catch off Stokes to get rid of left-hander Ian Westwood for four and when Yousuf departed it was 23 for three. Jim Troughton and Darren Maddy negotiated the remaining five overs before umpires Neil Mallender and Trevor Jesty spared them further torment.

n Durham seconds will play two Twenty20 matches against Nottinghamshire at Brandon today, the first at 11.30am and the second at 3pm.

The Friends Provident T20 series begins at home to Warwickshire next Thursday, when Paul Collingwood will be involved. But he will not be tuning up at Brandon as he is not due back from a family holiday in Barbados until today.

Liam Plunkett and Mark Stoneman are expected to continue their comebacks after injury.

Durham's overseas signing for the FP T20, 21-year-old South African batsman David Miller, will arrive on Tuesday. He has played in six T20 internationals, but when he was summoned to the Indian Premier League as a replacement for Dimitri Mascarenhas in the King's Punjab X1 he didn't get a game.

SCORECARD

Warwickshire v Durham
At Edgbaston.
Overnight: Durham 602-6 dec (W R Smith
179, D M Benkenstein 128, I DBlackwell 99,
P Mustard 71 no). Warwickshire 186-9 (V
Chopra 79).
Warwickshire First Innings
C L Metters not out 11
W B Rankin retd out 2
A S Miller c Di Venuto b Stokes 0
Extras (lb9 w5 nb10 pens 0) 24
Total (47.2 overs) 186
Fall: 1-18 2-29 3-29 4-31 5-117 6-126 7-132
8-162 9-180
Did Not Bat: K H D Barker.
Bowling: S J Harmison 16-4-41-2. Thorp
9-1-35-3. Borthwick 5-2-5-0. Brathwaite 6-
0-48-0. Stokes 11.2-1-48-4.
Warwickshire Second Innings Close
V Chopra c Di Venuto b Thorp 0
I J Westwood c Di Venuto b Stokes 4
J O Troughton not out 19
Mohammad Yousuf lbw b Stokes 0
D L Maddy not out 2
Extras (lb1 w7 nb2 pens 0) 10
Total 3 wkts (14 overs) 35
Fall: 1-8 2-23 3-23
To Bat: W T S Porterfield, R Clarke, T R Ambrose,
N Tahir, C L Metters,
W B Rankin, K H D Barker, A S Miller
Bonus Pts: Warwickshire 1 Durham 8
Bowling: S J Harmison 0.4-0-5-0. Stokes
6.2-2-16-2. Thorp 7-4-13-1.