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25th May 2011

Durham on the attack at Edgbaston

Dale Benkenstein, who scored his 20th century for the club early on in the session, off 183 balls including  11 boundaries, along with Will Smith guided Durham to maximum batting points and in the process secured themselves the record fourth wicket partnership, which Benkenstein had previously held with Paul Collingwood.

Smith was dismissed on 179 as Durham reached the milestone, when he was caught at leg slip by Rikki Clarke off Chris Metters.

The left arm spinner also claimed the scalp of Benkenstein (128), who he caught off his own bowling, leaving Durham 435-5.

The run rate slowed slightly as the new partnership established itself and by lunch Durham were 483-5, Ian Blackwell 45* and Phil Mustard 17*.

Both batsmen reached fifty with relative ease, with Blackwell’s coming up first, from 54 balls including three boundaries and two maximums, then Mustard reaching the half century from 69 balls including seven fours and a single six.

Durham declared on 602-6 catalysed by Blackwell who was caught on the boundary by Ian Westwood off Boyd Rankin one short of his fourth century of the season.

Warwickshire started tentatively with Stephen Harmison and Callum Thorp opening the bowling attack for Durham finding some life in the pitch that earlier in the day, had looked quite flat.  It was the latter who made the early breakthrough, with the last delivery of his third over, when Will Porterfield edged the ball to Scott Borthwick at third slip having scored just four.

Westwood didn’t contribute to the Warwickshire total, facing 14 balls, and was caught at short leg by Smith off Harmison with the final delivery of the 11th over.

Mohammad Yousaf was dismissed off the first ball of Harmison’s following over, caught at square leg by Borthwick, handing the seamer the opportunity of a hat-trick which Troughton just about managed to prevent from occurring. 

At tea Warwickshire were 30-3, Chopra 24* and Troughton 0*.

After the first over following tea the hosts were 35-4 after Troughton is run out by a direct hit from Borthwick at cover before he got a chance to get off the mark

Callum Thorp returned at the City End, replacing Brathwaite, for the 28th over and struck first ball, with Maddy caught in the slips by Muchall for 27 which saw Warwickshire fall to 117-5 in their first innings.

It was a case of two wickets in eight balls when Chopra (79) drove the ball into the hands of Michael Di Venuto at second slip with the total fell to just 131-6 and Durham claiming their seventh bonus point.

Warwickshire added just one run to their total before the seventh wicket fell, this time to Ben Stokes who bowled Rikki Clarke for 5 in the fourth over of his spell.

A change of ends saw Stokes benefit, trapping Tim Ambrose lbw on 13 as Warwickshire slumped to 167-8 with six overs remaining of the day.

He claimed a third scalp, that of Tahir, who was caught behind on 21, with just 2.2 overs remaining.

At the close of play Warwickshire were 186-9 with Metters 11* and Rankin 2*