Durham end day on upward curve

9:29am Friday 26th September 2008

Kent v Durham (LV County Championship) Second Day

DURHAM'S title hopes have been up and down like the FTSE 100 recently and their stock rose dramatically on Thursday afternoon as leaders Nottinghamshire collapsed at Trent Bridge.

While Michael Di Venuto's 90 and Will Smith's 81 helped Durham establish a strong position by reaching 289 for six at Canterbury to lead by 64, Hampshire's legspinner Imran Tahir suddenly turned the game at Trent Bridge.

He took four wickets to reduce Nottinghamshire from 172 for three to 211 all out, then Hampshire replied with 102 for one to lead by 94. The hosts will not want to chase more than 200 on the dry, cracked pitch they prepared in the belief that Tahir was unavailable.

The other good news for Durham was that Lancashire recovered at Taunton to take a first innings lead of 46, and if Durham reach 300 and go on to win they will be guaranteed to overtake Somerset for second place.

To be champions they need to win, while Nottinghamshire don't, and Dale Benkenstein would probably see that as the perfect opportunity to bow out on a massive high.

He feels Smith is ready to take over, and batting-wise the former Durham University captain continued to look extremely assured on Thursday.

There were a couple of scares around the 70 mark when he survived a big appeal for caught behind then clipped a superblytimed pick-up to deep square leg, where Joe Denly dived to get a hand on it.

But it was a big surprise when Smith fell five overs from the close, lbw to the previously unimpressive Ryan McLaren, who bowled nightwatchman Mark Davies two balls later.

Phil Mustard played one scoring shot, a pulled six, in surviving to the close and will hope to add substantially today on the ground where he made his top score of 130 two years ago.

Smith played most of the shots in the textbook, but was outpaced in the final hour by Gareth Breese, who drove with immaculate timing and picked up Martin Saggers over midwicket for six on his way to 46 not out.

The drama unfolding elsewhere, particularly Yorkshire's rearguard action at Hove, brought bad tidings for the Canterbury faithful as relegation loomed.

The only stage at which they did not look like division two candidates was when they belatedly brought ex-Durham seamer Saggers into the attack.

For some mysterious reason the 36-year-old swing bowler, at his best with a new ball, was introduced as the fourth change after 39 overs.

His captain's lack of faith looked justified as Di Venuto cracked him for three off-side fours in his first over. But in going for another big drive at the start of Saggers' second over, the left-hander edged to the wicketkeeper to depart for 90.

At 141 for two Benkenstein went in ahead of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who was said to be indisposed, which often means a batsman is experiencing the wrong kind of runs.

The captain has always been at his best at No 5, and after looking unusually subdued in making four from 21 balls he drove wide of off stump at Saggers and got an inside edge into his off pole.

Slipping to 155 for three following an opening stand of 92 proved only a minor irritation for Durham as Smith flourished while Chanderpaul settled in.

But after a stand of 60 the West Indian looked surprised to be adjudged lbw to Robbie Joseph.

Earlier Ben Harmison repeated his previous two first innings efforts as an opener, succeeding in his task of seeing off the new ball before getting himself out when he tried to accelerate.

He survived a sharp, low chance to second slip on nine and played some impressive strokes through the covers on his way to 26 off 80 balls. But in trying to sweep off-spinner James Tredwell he top-edged to mid-wicket, where Darren Stevens held a good catch.

Tredwell could have had a second wicket when Justin Kemp missed a difficult chance at deepish mid-on with Di Venuto on 39.

But the Tasmanian was generally in command and when McLaren came on for a second spell before Saggers had his first Di Venuto pulled the first ball for four to take his score to 72 out of 103.

On his way to 50 off 75 balls he had profited heavily from McLaren bowling too short and by the time he was out he was on 1,058 championship runs for the season.

While Durham may have had a frustrating half hour before taking the final Kent wicket in the morning, it at least helped the sun burn off the dew.

Left-hander Tredwell made 38 before he edged Callum Thorp and Mustard clung on to his fifth catch of the innings at the second attempt.

Saggers was unbeaten on ten as Kent were all out for 225, giving them the one batting point which currently keeps them level with Yorkshire. If things stay that way, Kent would survive courtesy of more wins.

Kent v Durham At Canterbury Overnight: Kent 190-9 (R W T Key 58; S J Harmison 4-72).

Kent First Innings

J C Tredwell c Mustard b Thorp ............38

M J Saggers not out .............................10

Extras (lb6 nb6 pens 0) ...............12

Total (59.5 overs) ...................225

Fall: 1-0 2-46 3-81 4-141 5-149 6-150 7-150 8-157 9-180 Bowling: S J Harmison 21-2-89-4. Thorp 15.5-3-57-2. Davies 13-4-33-2. Wiseman 1- 0-6-0. B W Harmison 9-1-34-2.

Durham First Innings Close

M J Di Venuto c GO Jones b Saggers ..90

B W Harmison c Stevens b Tredwell .....26

W R Smith lbw b McLaren .....................81

D M Benkenstein b Saggers ................. 4

S Chanderpaul lbw b Joseph ................20

G R Breese not out ...............................46

M Davies b McLaren ............................. 0

P Mustard not out ................................. 6

Extras (b4 lb4 w2 nb6 pens 0) ....16

Total 6 wkts (86 overs)...........289

Fall: 1-92 2-141 3-155 4-215 5-280 6-280

To Bat: P J Wiseman, C D Thorp, S J Harmison.

Bonus Pts: Kent 1 Durham 3 Bowling: Yasir Arafat 19-5-57-0. Joseph 17- 5-41-1. Tredwell 20-3-68-1. McLaren 14-1-57- 2. van Jaarsveld 3-2-7-0. Saggers 12-2-50- 2. Stevens 1-0-1-0.

Eating Out