WHEN Durham’s players opened their curtains yesterday morning they were confronted by a very unusual sight above the Channel – cloudless blue sky. Their awful August was over.

With league leaders Lancashire hammered and fourth-placed Somerset being hammered, things are suddenly looking up for Durham after a month which saw them knocked out of the Twenty20 Cup and seriously knocked back in the title race. The reason? Their lucky charm is back.

Scott Borthwick’s stats are good – 348 runs at 38.6 and 19 wickets at 30.57 before this match – but in team sports you often do not appreciate the value of a player until he is not there. Borthwick has missed the last four matches and Durham have won none. An excellent batsman to have coming in at eight, a lively fielder and promising leg-spinner, he gives great balance.

The defeat at Somerset which started Durham’s dismal sequence is the only Championship match he has been left out of. His other absences were down to England commitments and more seem certain, with three tours of the sub-continent this winter.

Bowling unchanged from the Sea End, the 21-year-old took his maiden five-wicket haul. It is the third time this season he has set a new mark for his best bowling figures in Championship cricket, a fair reflection of his progress since wintering in Australia.

Durham’s lower order did little to detain Sussex’s openers, hanging around for just 19 balls. It was a pity for Callum Thorp, whose batting looks infused with confidence after opening in Monday’s CB40 win at Surrey, hitting 37 not out from 38 balls yesterday.

It also left Durham 28 short of 400 – a figure they reached seven times before the end of June, but not since.