Maddy was the first to go caught behind by captain Phil Mustard and Warwickshire captain Westwood followed dragging onto his stumps. Mitchell Claydon had Botha caught at slip by Di Venuto and Thorp had Javid caught by Stokes as Durham reduced Warwickshire to 67 for 4. Troughton was joined by Ambrose and the two added 48 before Rushworth picked up his first wicket of the day having Troughton caught by Mustard for 44.
Ambrose went on to make 31 before he became Rushworths second victim, out LBW. Callum Thorp then returned to the attack to remove Carter, Miller and Tahir in the space of 22 runs as Warwickshire collapsed to 169-9. This brought Boyd Rankin to the crease to join Rikki Clarke. These two began to frustrate Durham and they brought up the fifty partnership in only 87 deliveries with Clarke contributing 43 and Rankin 7.
Chris Rushworth returned after tea to dismiss Clarke for a well composed 68 as Warwickshire were bowled out for 224.
Michael Di Venuto and Mark Stoneman took to the crease for the final 21 over’s of the day looking to build Durham’s first innings lead from 64. Both batsmen played positively and made good progress as they Stoneman finished on 42 and Michael Di Venuto on 31. Durham lead by 142 with all ten second innings remaining and will look to build a big lead tomorrow.
After his four wickets today Callum Thorp said ” We set out this morning looking to bowl them out for less than our score, although they got a few more than we would of liked, it was still a good day. Di Venuto and Stoneman batted well tonight, setting the standards, putting us in a fantastic position for tomorrow.”
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Durham CCC resumed their LV= County Championship campaign today (28 June) with a visit from Warwickshire CCC at Emirates Durham ICG.
Durham were without Liam Plunkett and Warwickshire were missing Jonathan Trott and Chris Woakes, all of whom are currently on England Lions duty.
Durham: Di Venuto, Stoneman, Muchall, Benkenstein, Blackwell, Stokes, Mustard, Thorp, Claydon, Rushworth, Harmison S.
Warwickshire: Westwood, Botha, Maddy, Troughton, Javid, Ambrose, Clarke, Carter, Miller, Imran Tahir, Rankin.
Warwickshire won the toss and elected to bat first but the home side lost the first four wickets fairly cheaply and were 73-4 after 25.3 overs.
Neil Carter claimed the wickets of both the openers, Di Venuto caught by Ambrose for 6 and Stoneman caught by Clarke for 12.
Gordon Muchall added 27 before he was caught by Boyd Rankin off Rikki Clarke. Darren Maddy claimed just one wicket in the innings, that of Dale Benkenstein who was caught behind on fourteen.
At lunch Durham were 71-4 with Blackwell (19*) and Stokes (10*) at the crease. Durham were 112-5 once Stokes was caught by Miller off Rankin for 16 after the break.
Phil Mustard and Blackwell steadied the innings, putting on 91 and pushing the Durham total past 200 in the second session, before Mustard became Imran Tahir’s first victim when was caught by Clarke for 35 just before tea.
Durham’s top scorer, Blackwell, who was bowled by Clarke for 86, left Durham 221-7 with 28 overs remaining of the day.
The tail added 73, including a first class best of 26 for Chris Rushworth, before the final wicket fell with Durham’s first innings total of 288.
With the conditions having been warm from the start of play, they deteriorated during the change of innings with the light fading.
The Durham side and Warwickshire openers played just 1.3 overs before a combination of bad light and rain stopped play at around 5.30pm.
At the close of play we spoke to Ian Blackwell, “It was one of those days where you need to grind out the runs, so it probably wasn’t one of my best innings but a vital one for the team in the end. We knew that when Phil came in that we needed to have a decent partnership and he played fluently for his 35.
“There was swing and a fair bit of bounce in the pitch today, it was a slightly two paced pitch, some balls were coming in nicely and others were hard to time. It was a case of picking off what we could and trying to get a decent platform.
“The runs from the tail were much needed, we always try and get as much as we can from the bottom four and today it was seventy – odd and that could put us in a decent position for this game.
“It’s going to be tough for them tomorrow, we’ve got some skilful bowlers, they can hopefully get a bit of bounce and make it awkward for them. “
Follow the Live Match Chat from Durham CCC v Warwickshire CCC here www.durhamccc.co.uk/live-match-chat