Paul Horton gives County Championship leaders Lancashire a boost at Chester-le-Street

The clash of the top two promised to test Lancashire’s resolve against a team who have been obliged to eke out victories on flat pitches.

Three of the leaders’ five wins have come at Liverpool and, despite their 590 at Hove, the average total of the side batting first in their previous six matches has been 299, compared with 474 for Durham. Nor have the pitches on which Durham have played deteriorated.

In six of their seven games the final innings has produced more than 300 runs, the exception being their 102 for two to beat Warwickshire at home.

There was a tinge of green in Sunday’s strip, so Durham put Lancashire in and for 30 minutes they threatened to wreak havoc.

Then the sun came out, the batsmen dug in and the seamers erred. Graham Onions and Callum Thorp took a wicket each in reducing Lancashire to nine for two, but dropped too short too often thereafter.

Watched by England selector James Whitaker, Onions did not enhance his chances of being called up for the second Test in place of James Anderson. Onions came under fire from Glen Chapple when the new ball was taken on 241 for seven.

Nine overs later it was 310 for seven, but Mitch Claydon had Chapple caught at third man for 46 and the last three wickets went down for one run.

Paul Horton’s 94 revived Lancashire, but when he was fourth out with the total on 158 the benefits of diligent application began to be dissipated, with Gareth Cross and Tom Smith both guilty of over-ambition against the spinners.

Although he gave no clear chance, Horton led something of a charmed life.

An edge on one brushed Gordon Muchall’s fingertips at first slip, a leading edge on 19 just evaded cover and a skied hook on 65 fell into space.

He showed good judgement of what to leave, however, and remained alert to the chance to dispatch poor balls, hitting 15 fours.

Three came in one over from Ben Stokes – a pull, a square drive and an on-drive – to take Horton into the 90s, only for Stokes to nip one back to hit the off stump and end a stand of 72 with Steve Croft.

Both batsmen had set out to leave whatever they didn’t need to play at in the post-lunch spell from Onions and Thorp. Durham’s hopes of reuniting Onions and Steve Harmison for the first time since August, 2009 were dashed by the back injury which afflicted Harmison at Edgbaston.

It seemed unlikely to matter, however, when Stephen Moore fell to the 12th ball of the day, guiding a head-high catch to third slip, then Keith Brown shaped to drive Onions and edged to Michael Di Venuto at second slip.

The Tasmanian also held a simple catch to end Mark Chilton’s 23-over vigil for 12 and a brilliant one to get rid of Croft and give Ian Blackwell the first of his three wickets.

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Harmison out of Lancashire clash

Steve Harmison has been ruled out of Durham's top-of-the-table clash with Lancashire after he suffered a spinal joint sprain at Warwickshire

Steve Harmison has not been included in Durham’s squad for their top-of-the-table clash with LV= County Championship leaders Lancashire at the Emirates Durham ICG.

The former England paceman suffered a spinal joint sprain in the innings-and-103-run victory against Warwickshire yesterday, when he was unable to bowl in the final two sessions.

The quick turnaround has meant that Harmison has been unable to overcome the problem and he has not been risked.

However, Graham Onions returns after being rested at Edgbaston, while Liam Plunkett is included following his recovery from a torn quad muscle.

Durham will be looking for their third consecutive win, having also claimed an innings victory at Worcestershire, but they come up against a Lancashire side who have won five and drawn one of their opening six championship fixtures.

The Red Rose go into the fixture three points ahead of Durham and captain Glen Chapple is expected to return to duty after sitting out the 10-wicket thrashing of Hampshire inside three days at the Rose Bowl this week.

Nottinghamshire have included Riki Wessels in their squad as they look to end a three-game winless run against rock-bottom Worcestershire at New Road.

The defending champions last tasted victory in the championship against Worcestershire last month at Trent Bridge, but they have drawn with Yorkshire and suffered nine-wicket defeats to Sussex and Warwickshire since then.

Wessels impressed in Wednesday’s Clydesdale Bank 40 victory over Gloucestershire and is named alongside the returning Samit Patel and Darren Pattinson. Ali Brown makes way, and Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann remain on international duty with England.

Adam Voges will make his final four-day appearance of the season against Worcestershire, who have lost all six of their championship fixtures, following the arrival of David Hussey from the Indian Premier League.

Yorkshire will be looking for their first win the championship since the opening game of the season but they will come up against a resurgent Sussex at the PROBIZ County Ground.

Andrew Gale’s men have drawn two and lost four four-day matches following their success against Worcestershire last month, while Sussex will be looking for their third consecutive victory following triumphs against Nottinghamshire and Somerset.

First and second also play each other in Division Two as leaders Northamptonshire face Glamorgan at Wantage Road.

Northamptonshire are undefeated in both the County Championship and the Clydesdale Bank 40 but they look set to be without wicketkeeper-batsman Niall O’Brien, who is still recovering from a hairline fracture to his left hand sustained during their CB40 win over Hampshire.

Glamorgan lie just three points behind Northants and they have included seamer James Harris in their squad after he missed their last championship encounter at Surrey with a sore foot.

Graham Wagg and Jim Allenby also return after recovering from a hamstring injury and a side strain respectively.

Ryan ten Doeschate is expected to make his first appearance of the season for Essex against Gloucestershire at Bristol.

The Netherlands all-rounder returns after representing the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL and will replace Graham Napier, who is being rested, while Chris Wright and Maurice Chambers come back in after missing the draw against Middlesex earlier this week.

Gloucestershire will move up to third if they can defeat Essex and should be able to welcome back pace duo Liam Norwell and David Payne, both of whom missed the draw with Leicestershire two weeks ago.

New Zealand batsman Martin Guptill is in line to make his Derbyshire debut against Surrey following the early departure of Usman Khawaja due to Australia A commitments.

Azeem Rafiq’s loan spell from Yorkshire has been ended one game early by a suspected fractured finger, Tim Groenewald is rested, and Steffan Jones, Mark Turner, Ross Whiteley and Paul Borrington are added to the squad.

Kent, who could move off the bottom of the table if they overcome fellow strugglers Leicestershire at Tunbridge Wells, will be buoyed after ending a four-game losing streak in the championship following their draw with Derbyshire.

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Lancashire v Sussex: Glen Chapple and Gary Keedy waste no time in wrapping up home victory

Sussex took a leaf out of the Rory McIlory textbook as they capitulated to a humiliating defeat after morning rain had opened the door to an unlikely escape route.

The weather delayed the start until 1.10pm, leaving Sussex, trailing overnight by 78 runs with seven wickets in hand, 72 overs to deny Lancashire the victory their superiority over the first three days had merited.

Seventy-two overs? A tall order, maybe, on a pitch offering encouragement to the left-arm spin of Gary Keedy. But by no means an impossible task, given sustained application.

Instead, Sussex simply fell apart, at one point losing six wickets for 12 runs in 35 balls before a spell of token resistance by last pair Amjad Khan and Monty Panesar. The end came after just 63 minutes.

Lancashire captain Glen Chapple took four of the seven wickets to fall to give him figures of four for 49 from 19.5 overs and a match tally of nine for 117.

Keedy claimed the other three wickets for a second-innings return of five for 41 from an unbroken spell of 26 overs. He said: “It was a bizarre sequence of events. I’ve not played in many games where a side has been 23 for seven on a placid pitch.”

Well though the experienced Lancashire duo performed, however, the Sussex batting performance was simply abysmal. The debacle began in the second over of the day when Joe Gatting, having survived a confident shout for a catch at the wicket from Chapple’s first ball, pushed tentatively forward to the second and wicketkeeper Gareth Cross took a straightforward catch.

Ben Brown followed in Chapple’s next over, shouldering arms and losing his off stump. And when Murray Goodwin, advancing down the wicket to Keedy, edged a low catch to slip, Sussex were staring down both barrels.

Rana Naved adopted the gung ho approach, hoisting Keedy for a straight six, but that was never going to be a recipe for survival. He soon perished to a bat pad chance to silly mid-off, opening the door for Keedy to uproot Naveed Arif’s off stump with his next delivery as the all-rounder essayed an expansive off drive.

James Anyon, driving loosely at Chapple, was well caught by Tom Smith at second slip and the last pair’s contribution of 10 runs in eight overs merely delayed the inevitable until Chapple trapped Panesar leg before.

Sussex coach Mark Robinson did not offer any excuses. “This defeat is more about things that happened earlier in the match,” he said. “We had windows to get a proper foothold in the game but Lancashire stuck to a simple and disciplined game plan and ground their way into a winning position.”

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