ANOTHER nail seemed to have been hammered into the coffin of outground cricket yesterday when 18 wickets fell in the first two sessions on the first day of Durham's top-of-the-table match against Lancashire at Liverpool.

But it was the quality of the batting which came under scrutiny at the homely Aigburth ground, with its imposing old pavilion, and it was the even more indestructible Dale Benkenstein who restored sanity.

With staunch support from Graham Onions, the ninth-wicket pair made a mockery of what had gone before by putting on 79 to take Durham to 186 in reply to 84.

Steve Harmison was bowled by Gary Keedy for a duck to leave Benkenstein stranded on 83 with eight overs left to be bowled. Lancashire reached four without loss in the first over before bad light ended play.

ECB pitch inspector Peter Walker, the former Glamorgan player, went so far as to say at tea-time: "It's as good a pitch as I have ever seen and how the best two sides in the country have managed to get out so cheaply is completely baffling."

Durham still had two wickets standing at the time but they had been 60 for six and some in the middle order had surrendered far too easily.

Walker added: "The ball has swung, but it hasn't seamed. The young groundsman is beside himself wondering how this has happened."

The way Benkenstein stroked the ball around in the evening, with the help of four overthrows as Lancashire grew frustrated, should have turned the groundsman's frown into a beaming smile.

It would also have raised the spirits of those who love the more intimate atmosphere of cricket at outgrounds, although it could easily be argued that a match which could justifiably be billed as a title decider deserves a more fitting arena.

Unless the Lancashire batsmen muster more resistance today they will suffer their second hammering of the season by Durham and the title race will be as good as over with no other county threatening a serious challenge.

It used to be mandatory to report the pitch to Lord's if 15 wickets fell on the first day and on this occasion 16 went down in the first 53 overs. But Walker added that the authorities at headquarters were happy to take his word that it was the batting which lacked quality, not the pitch.

He first popped his head into the Press tent between innings to say that the surface was completely unmarked and was not damp. He added that he had never seen anything like it, implying that there was no reason why wickets should have tumbled in such fashion.

Callum Thorp, who took six for 20, confirmed that the ball had swung and added: "We did a bit of research on the bus coming down and the statistics for matches here gave us some idea of what to expect on the first day.

"It does tend to settle down a bit, so a 110-run lead on a day when 20 wickets fall is very useful. Dale's innings stood out - it was phenomenal with the ball still swining."

Durham were 60 for six and Sajid Mahmood had taken three for ten until Benkenstein and Scott Borthwick suddenly took 14 runs off his seventh over.

Batting began to look a little easier and the seventh-wicket pair added 37. But then Borthwick and Thorp fell to successive balls before Onions showed the batting form for which he became famous in helping to save two Tests in South Africa.

The ball swung most in the morning humidity, which gave way to much cooler and cloudier conditions.

Durham lost both openers with only eight on the board before Gordon Muchall restored some sanity with an innings of 28.

But it became 38 for three when Paul Collingwood tried to pull Mahmood's second ball and toe-ended it to mid-on to depart for 11.

Mahmood also bowled Ian Blackwell through a flat-footed drive and had Phil Mustard lbw when shaping to play through mid-wicket.

After Durham won the toss for the ninth time in ten matches the carnage started with the day's third ball as Paul Horton fell lbw to Onions.

Mustard held a good catch low to his right off Thorp to remove Karl Brown and when the same combination accounted for Mark Chilton the score was 11 for three.

Lancashire would have struggled to reach 70 but for more wayward bowling by Harmison.

After his struggles last week against Yorkshire on his return from a back injury, he came on at 17 for three after 14 overs and sent down two balls in his first over which went for four wides.

He eventually conceded 16 in wides in seven overs, although he did pick up the wicket of top scorer Stephen Moore. The opener made 27, which included a hooked six off Harmison, before he was sixth out with the total on 54.

There were five catches for Mustard and one for Michael Di Venuto at second slip, plus two lbws. Mahmood tried to pull Onions and skied a return catch while the final dismissal saw left-hander Kyle Hogg's off stump taken out by Thorp.

Thorp had three for 15 in ten overs in his opening spell then swiftly wrapped up the innings after lunch. It was his first five-wicket haul for two years and his best figures since he took seven for 88 in Durham's title-clinching win at Canterbury in 2008.