Durham foiled by Watkinson

MIKE CAREY

reports from Old Trafford

Durham 249 and 47-1

Lancashire 370

A wholehearted bowling performance by Durham gave them a foothold they could hardly have envisaged here yesterday, until Mike Watkinson stopped them in their tracks with a dazzling display of clean-cut strokes which brought his eighth first-class century off just 112 deliveries.

Alongside him, Glen Chapple dropped anchor to stretch his role as night- watchman into something more than a walk-on part in making a half-century. Lancashire were not only spared considerable embarrassment but achieved an extremely valuable and possibly match-winning lead.

This pitch is likely to turn sooner rather than later. Already there is a substantial amount of wear and tear from the bowlers' footmarks; Simon Brown twisted an ankle and collapsed in his delivery stride, although the injury is not thought to be serious.

Watkinson's flow of strokes and Chapple's tenacious, correct defence had put Lancashire's early batting firmly into perspective. If nothing else, this pair illustrated the old-fashioned virtue of playing straight.

Durham would have thought that their chances of winning the National Lottery were higher than dismissing Michael Atherton, John Crawley and Neil Fairbrother for less than 50 between them on this pitch.

But Atherton was leg-before padding up to Brown, Crawley was caught at cover off Manoj Prabhakar from a somewhat flat-footed stroke, and Fairbrother steered John Wood to gully where James Boiling caught him at the second - or was it the third - attempt. When Nick Speak met a similar fate against Melvyn Betts, Lancashire found themselves 105 for 5 on one of the best batting surfaces in the country.

Something drastic was needed and Watkinson provided it. He appears to be such a good judge of length that anything fractionally short was dismissed through mid-wicket with an apparently effortless pull-stroke. Boiling found that he could not afford even the most minute lapse of length and line, and soon disappeared from the attack.

Watkinson hit 16 fours and four sixes. It was all clinical, calmly picked- off stuff. It took a good ball from Brown to dislodge Chapple after some three and a half hours, but the one that Durham's tail-enders would have enjoyed most of all was Wood's straight bouncer, which had Wasim Akram caught off a remote part of the bat as he ducked and flailed unsuccessfully.