Lancashire v Durham: Day three lunch
AFTER 18 wickets tumbled on Tuesday Durham have managed to take only one this morning as Lancashire continue to frustrate them with the bat.
The wicket to fall was that of nightwatchman Gary Keedy, leg before to what looked like Scott Borthwick's flipper given that it hurried the batsman and didn't turn. Keedy, though, scored 24 as Lancashire wiped out the first innings deficit.
They were still 34 runs behind at the start of play and were already two wickets down, but this has been an extremely good session for the home side who haven't looked particularly threatened by either slow bowler or fast.
Which raises an interesting question. The ball was turning almost square the day before and offering variable bounce to the seamers as well, so what has happened? I wonder if someone snuck the heavy roller on in the middle of the night!!
That's not allowed of course and the resident experts at Old Trafford tell me the pitch quite often plays better as the game goes on here so I'm sure it's entirely innocent!
However, the change in the surface and the wet weather over the north-west have raised the possibility this could end up being another draw, remarkable given some were predicting last night that it would finish with a full day to spare.
Durham need wickets early in the afternoon session and, encouragingly, Borthwick is bowling a lot better today than he did down at Basingstoke or in the first innings. He and Ian Blackwell may yet swing things back in their favour.
Lancashire may be 85-3, but given the runs they have had to make up after the first innings, they are effectively 29-3. Mark Chilton is on 39 and Shivnarine Chanderpaul is 11 not out.
