By Jon Steer
May 13 2005

The trip to Old Trafford looked like bein a tricky one but through some great performances from Hussey, Harmison and the rest of the team, Durham come away with a nine wicket victory over the preseason favourites. From Wednesday morning when Harmison struck to remove Mal Loye and Brad Hodge, Mick Lewis making his champtionship debut removed Chilton Law and Flintoff and Liam Plunkett bowled Hegg Durham fans have been unable to believe just how far their team has come.

Lancashire were reeling on 102/6 at lunch on the first day and but for a frustrating eighth wicket partnership between Anderson and Keedy then never showed any signs of recovering. Lancashire were dismissed for 199, deprived of any batting points, a major achievement against a team with such a well proven batting line up.

A promising start to Durham's first innings was marred a little when Paul Collingwood was bowled by Chapple in the final over of the day to leave them on 92-2 but a stand of over fifty between Hussey and Muchall looked to be setting up Durham for a decent first innings lead. That was until Muttiah Muralitharan entered the attack and took three wickets very quickly to leave Durham in the much less attractive position of 159-6.

Mike Hussey was still there, but could anyone else stand up to the spin attack of Murali and Keedy? The answer was yes, Phil Mustard made his intentions clear with a straight six from Keedy's bowling to get off the mark and he seemed able to score boundaries at will against both full time spinners.

By the time Lancashire resorted to the part time spin of Brad Hodge and Mustard misjudged one the score was approaching 300 and Hussey was well past his own century. Durham finished on 338 all out with Mike Hussey carrying his bat for a brilliant 144. Durham had claimed three batting points and a first innings lead of 139. Surely the Lancashire batting line up couldn't fail again?

Steve Harmison took up the challenge and just like the first innings removed Loye and Hodge before the score reached 40. Paul Collingwood, Liam Plunkett and Mick Lewis all enjoyed successes to remove Law, Chilton and Chapple to leave Lancashire on 112-5.

At the end of the second day Flintoff was still there but Lancs had yet to wipe out their first innings deficit. Harmison began the third day in superb style taking the wickets of close friend Flintoff and Warren Hegg. Mick Lewis then stepped in to take the wicket of Dominic Cork before Harmy cleaned up the tail to leave Lancashire 173 all out, a lead of just 34.

Durham did lose the wicket of Jon Lewis but otherwise the chase was over quickly with Mike Hussey hitting the winning runs as he finished on 26 not out.

The match brings Harmison's contribution to Durham to an end until much later in the season but with Mark Davies rested and Ashley Noffke not yet tested there are signs that he may not be missed as much as would have been thought before the start of the season. 26 wickets in four matches for Harmison have been a major factor in the victories but Davies has 22 wickets from the first three so will not be behind for long...