RIVERSIDE

(Day three of four)

Durham 380 (S.Chanderpaul 138, G.Breese 63; M.Sami 5-65, J.Lewry 4-82). Sussex 267-6 (C.Nash 96, M.Goodwin 44; P.Wiseman 2-50, S.Harmison 2-59).

Lunch

Durham, 325 for four overnight, seemed certain to reach 400 and take maximum batting points, but they lost their way to a patient Sussex attack, allowing Mohammad Sami and Jason Lewry to take five and four wickets respectively.

Once Gareth Breese and Shivnarine Chanderpaul had gone, the former without addition and the latter adding only eight, Durham seemed fixated with reaching 400 despite a steady fall of wickets which suggested they might be better to declare soon after 350 and give themselves time to bowl Sussex out twice. But the Durham hierachy evidently felt that a draw was near-certain and the best that could be achieved was maximum bonus points to add to the four-point draw.

The big wicket was that of Chanderpaul .His good form of the previous day seemed still to be with him before a favourite stroke - angling a drive towards the on-side - saw him lose his off stump to Lewry. The brightest play saw Steve Harmison swishing merrily in an unlikely attempt to add 35 for the last wicket - before swinging at a full toss and missing.

Michael Yardy and Chris Nash were relatively untroubled in posting 41 by lunch, a period in which little swing or seam movement was apparent - for all that Sussex's seam bowlers had found a touch of assistance in taking Durham's last six wickets for 55.

Tea

Two spasms of impatience lost Sussex two of their wickets in an afternoon which, never the less, was shaded by the visitors. The first came from Yardy who, on 25, called for a single when his pushed drive sent to ball towards mid-off only to be intercepted by Durham's fastest fielder, Will Smith, who threw the stumps down with Yardy short of his ground.

That first wicket soon brought a second, when Stephen Harmison delivered a ball on the classic fast bowler's length and line, and Luke Wright's corrrect-looking defensive stroke merely provided a edge to the wicketkeeper. At 65 for two Sussex must have been anxious, but Nash continued to play with confidence against a seam attack that could find little assistance, and the reliable Murray Goodwin started securely if cautiously.

The pair had added 93 when the belated entry of Paul Wiseman - plus more off-spin at the other end from Breese - brought another rush of blood. Nash had reacted to Wiseman by advancing on the bowler, and continued to do so, while Wiseman countered skilfully, following the batsman around the crease. Eventually, four short his hundred, the duel ended with Nash being outwitted and bowled by the off-spinner.

Close

Three wickets for Durham in the final session brought the balance again to a state of parity. Matthew Prior, after 58 good-looking runs, drove carelessly at the first ball of an over from the returning Stephen Harmison. Murray Goodwin was out in less conventional manner: on 44, he went down the pitch and missed, then turned to see that the wicketkeeper, Mustard had also failed to catch the ball - which, however, rebounded from his shoulder onto the stumps.

With Carl Hopkinson leg-before to Breese, Durham's "spin-twins" - a term very rarely used on this ground - had taken three of the five wickets to fall to bowlers. But with the spinners still operating, and the light somewhat better than it had been for an hour, the umpires took the players off at 5.18. It seemed symptomatic of a day on which a positive result was not writ large in the minds of either team.