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30th May 2010

Hundred for Mustard as Durham post 379

Durham resumed on 65-1 with Gordon Muchall (21*) and Mark Stoneman (31*) at the crease with both going on to score fifties in their return to the first eleven this week.

They pushed the Durham total past the 150 mark before Muchall became the first of Imran Tahir’s eight victims when he was trapped lbw for 60.

Twenty was added to the score before Stoneman was stumped on 77 off Tahir after defending a shot and moving out of his crease, only for Johnson to remove the bails at speed.  Ian Blackwell joined Dale Benkenstein at the crease but returned to the pavilion without scoring after he was caught by Darren Maddy off Tahir.

At lunch Durham were 176-4 with Benkenstein (10*) and Stokes (4*) at the crease.

Stokes (16) was the next man to fall to Tahir, hitting the ball high for Troughton to run back and take at mid on, leaving Durham 190-5.

Tahir then struck twice in three balls in the 76th over, picking up the wickets of Benkenstein, who having helped guide the score up to 235 and was trapped lbw for 26, and Borthwick, who was caught by Barker for 0.

Phil Mustard and Liam Plunkett then settled nicely in the middle with the score reaching 284-7 at tea and the third batting bonus point in sight. 

The fifty partnership was brought up shortly after the break, with Mustard reaching the fifty milestone in the 97th over, having faced 101 balls.  The pair secured Durham’s third bowling point before Plunkett was bowled by Tahir 41 in the 104th over with Durham needing 20 from six overs for their fourth batting point.

Three boundaries from Claydon kept the score moving and four byes saw Durham pass the 350 mark and pick up the vital extra point.  Claydon was out lbw to Botha for 14, bringing Chris Rushworth to the middle to partner Mustard, who was within reach of his third first class hundred.

He batted on and brought up his century with a maximum, having faced 139 balls but was out next ball, caught by Westwood off Tahir for 100, which brought Durham’s first innings to a close with a total of 379 on the board.

Mitchell Claydon struck with the sixth ball of Warwickshire’s first innings, with Maddy caught by Rushworth without scoring.  Miller came in as nightwatchman to join Westwood and at the close of play on day two Warwickshire were 18-1.

After top scoring, durhamccc.co.uk spoke to Phil Mustard at the close of play, “I thought I was going to run out of partners at one point.  We bat all the way to eleven, Rushy can hold his own at one end, that’s what he did and he stopped there long enough for me to get my hundred.  

“I went in when we were 180-5 and I went out there thinking that I’d rather get out playing a few shots in a positive mode rather than just trying to work the spinners.  I went out thinking I was going to be positive against the spinners and it paid off. 

“When you look at the scoreboard it could’ve gone the other way – we could have all been out for 210 but me and Pudsey buckled down.  Looking at the pitch before the game we knew that if we wanted to win it in three days we would have to bat first, get enough of a total and bowl them out twice.”