Theories abounded as Durham were asked to bat first. One was that a touch of green in the pitch signified a wish by the home side to avoid giving any undue assistance to Imran Tahir’s leg spin. Another was that Warwickshire’s prime motive was to protect a batting line-up that in four innings had not reached 150 — and had not taken a batting bonus point since May 5th.
That said, a decision to bowl first was not unreasonable, given two narrow strips of greener grass running down the pitch — albeit that they would turn out to be visible, and have an influence, only until the afternoon.
By that time Durham were 97 for four, and 112 for five soon afterwards. The home side could have applied themselves a little more resolutely to bat just with the interval in mind, but there was certainly one batsman who couldn’t be blamed for his dismissal. That was Mark Stoneman, who got a ball from Neil Carter that lifted and went away fractionally, taking a edge that was safely pouched at second slip by Rikki Clarke.
Lift was always a factor, and so was swing, as Darren Maddy came on early and produced disconcerting movement in the hazy atmosphere.
Against him, there was a contrasting approach by Dale Benkenstein and Gordon Muchall. The former was content to play only at that which needed playing; the latter was eager for the counter-attack.
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In the end there was not much profit in either method. Muchall was 27 when he holed out to deep square leg, in an over in which he had already taken two fours. Benkenstein edged his defensive push to a Maddy outswinger, having made just 14 in 61 balls. With Ben Stokes perishing rather carelessly, swinging Boyd Rankin straight to backward square leg, the recovery had to come from Ian Blackwell and Phil Mustard.
The former played a great number of sweeps against Tahir, whose control was impressive, and Mustard was not far behind him in stroke selection.
Confidence was everything for these two, as they added 91, and Blackwell went on to 86 before playing-on. Comically, Mustard had avoided that fate by heading away a ball that threatened to rebound onto his stumps — only to fall without addition, on 35.
There were some bold, confident strokes by Callum Thorp and Chris Rushworth before Durham closed on a competitive-looking 288.
Durham: First Innings
M J Di Venuto c Ambrose b Carter 6
M D Stoneman c Clarke b Carter 12
G J Muchall c Rankin b Clarke 27
D M Benkenstein c Ambrose b Maddy 14
I D Blackwell b Clarke 86
B A Stokes c Miller b Rankin 16
*†P Mustard c Clarke b Tahir 35
C D Thorp st Ambrose b Tahir 29
M E Claydon b Miller 18
C Rushworth c Ambrose b Carter 26
S J Harmison not out 0
Extras (b 5, lb 5, w 1, nb 8) 19
Total (83.4 overs) 288
Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-19, 3-58, 4-71, 5-112, 6-203, 7-221, 8-245, 9-284.
Bowling: Carter 15-1-36-3; Miller 14.4-0-55-1; Maddy 13-3-35-1; Clarke 12-0-51-2; Tahir 19-3-57-2; Rankin 10-2-44-1.
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Warwickshire: First Innings
*I J Westwood not out 1
D L Maddy not out 2
Extras (lb 4) 4
Total (no wkt, 1.3 overs) 7
A G Botha, J O Troughton, A Javid, †T R Ambrose, R Clarke, N M Carter, A S Miller, Imran Tahir and W B Rankin to bat.
Bowling: Harmison 1-1-0-0; Thorp 0.3-0-3-0.
Umpires: B Dudleston and S A Garratt.