LV County Championship
First division
Day one of four, Chester-le Street

Durham: 232
Surrey: 161-7

Fourth-placed Durham, looking to close the gap on the leaders in the First Division of the LV County Championship, were bowled out for just 232 by struggling Surrey at Chester-le-Street despite half centuries from Shivarine Chanderpaul and Michael Di Venuto.

Surrey, third from bottom and in danger of relegation, enjoyed early success, as Matthew Nicholson and Chris Jordan claimed the wickets of Mark Stoneman and Kyle Coetzer cheaply.

Di Venuto and Chanderpaul then launched a Durham fightback, putting on 88 for the third wicket before the Australian fell leg-before to Harbhajan Singh for 56.

Dale Benkenstein made a quickfire 30 off just 27 deliveries before he also perished lbw, this time to Stewart Walters. From a position of relative strength at 181-3, the Durham innings subsided.

Singh (three for 49) and Jordan (3-42) ripped through the lower order, as the last seven wickets fell for just 51. Chanderpaul was eighth out for 81, one of two wickets for James Ormond.

Surrey made a solid start in reply, Scott Newman and Jonathan Batty taking the score to 29 before Newman was run out for nine. When Batty was dismissed by Stephen Harmison for 18 it was the visitors' turn to stumble, as 29 without loss became 42-5 courtesy of three quick wickets from the evergreen Ottis Gibson. Mark Ramprakash brought some semblance or order to proceedings, sharing in a partnership of 67 with James Benning before the latter fell to Paul Wiseman for 36. Ramprakash, on 62, went to the penultimate ball of the day from Liam Plunkett to leave Durham feeling a lot happier about their position at the close than they had earlier on.