Graham Onions was the pick of the Durham attack on day two of their LV= County Championship game against Middlesex at Lord’s picking up three wickets. At the close the hosts were 132-5.
After a days delay in getting the match started due to bad weather the removal of Andrew Strauss’ off stump by Onions with the second delivery of the game quickly showed Durham’s intent.
Onions claimed a second victim four overs later with Joe Denly edging the ball to Paul Collingwood at first slip with just one run to his name.
Not wanting to miss out on the early action, Callum Thorp reduced Middlesex to 2-3 in the sixth over after Sam Robson was fell foul of Michael Di Venuto in the slips without scoring.
The opening seamers bowled economically and restricted the hosts early on, it was a change in the attack through, for the 15th over, that saw Mitchell Claydon strike with his first delivery in the match as Chris Rodgers (9) became the third batsman to deliver a catch to the slip fielders, this time it was Scott Borthwick who held on.
Neil Dexter, who temporarily stepped down from captaining duties the day before the game was scheduled to begin, came to the crease with his county 28-4.
The first session was brought to an early close due to bad light and once the players had left the field, just before 1pm, the rain began to fall.
By 4.15pm play was able to re-start with 39 overs scheduled to be played before the close. A diving roll saw Phil Mustard hold on to a catch off Onions to dismiss Malan on 35, bringing the 50 run partnership to an end as Middlesex fell to 83-5.
Dexter went on to score a 66 ball fifty, his first in over a year, before the close and with rain halting play early again, Middlesex will resume play tomorrow on 132-5 with Dexter (65*) and John Simpson (9*) at the crease.
At the close of play Durhamccc.co.uk caught up with Graham Onions, who ended the day with figures of 3-24 off his 13 overs and had this to say about the day’s cricket, “I love playing for Durham and I want to win as many games as I can and hopefully that drive can benefit Durham. We had a good day today, Thorpy bowled quite nicely too. For me personally I feel like I’m in a good place, I’m enjoying myself, I feel pretty strong and the ball is coming out nicely, which is all I can ask for.
“I’ve got some very good memories of coming here, I took one of my first five-fers for Durham here and then on my Test debut I got a five-fer too, which was obviously great for me. It’s a special place to come and play and when I come here I enjoy it.
“The ball that got Andrew Strauss out was a decent ball and for us to get him out early, as a team, was very important and we need more of the same tomorrow.”
For match updates as the action happened visit www.durhamccc.co.uk/live-match-chat or follow @durhamcricket on Twitter.