YOU need many different qualities to be a successful county captain, conviction in your decisions, confidence in your own ability and inspiration in your words. A decent understanding of the day’s weather forecast can also come in useful.

This was a good day for Lancashire skipper Glen Chapple, who not only took three important wickets and won the toss, but also made a brave call to allow Durham to bat first on a pitch which traditionally worsens the longer the game goes on.

There is always a risk in asking the home side to bat first on their own track, but Chapple knew what he was doing and did enough with the ball himself – he ended the day with figures of 3-46 – to make sure his team made the most of the advantage he tried to give them.

Although Durham started brightly under bright skies on the opening day of this LV County Championship match, Chapple’s decision to put them into bat looked an astute one by tea time. The home side were 212-8 at the close.

Not only did it deprive Durham’s fearsome seam attack of carrying on where they had left off in the comprehensive Championship win over Hampshire at the weekend, it also ensured Lancashire’s bowlers got the best of the conditions.

The weather forecast had always promised rain showers, and with it disruption to the batsmen at the crease, while the chance of low cloud cover added the extra threat of a swinging ball.

Significantly, the forecast for the next two days is better with blue skies and sunny spells ideal for batting and Chapple had clearly planned ahead.

With Andrew Flintoff in their ranks for the first time this season as he tries to prove his form and fitness before the start of the Ashes series next month, Lancashire possess an attack which can rival Durham’s and Chapple knew it.

And it was Flintoff who struck first with his second ball of the morning. Michael Di Venuto was the victim, pushing forward defensively to a ball just outside off stump which was caught behind by Luke Sutton.