By Jon Steer
May 2 2003

In an awful day for Durham, Gloucs extended their final wicket stand to end on 341 all out. Durham were soon in trouble with the bat at one point we were 5-3 and finished the day on 128-7. When Gloucs were 243-8 on Wednesday afternoon things were looking good for Durham, all we needed to do was take the final two wickets quickly and start scoring some runs. How difficult could it be...

Well thanks to the ever difficult Jack Russell Gloucs extended their first innings score to 341 before Danny Law finally removed the ex-England keeper for his fourth wicket of the innings and the only bowler who really seemed to have caused any problems for the Gloucs batsmen.

Durham then had the worst possible start with Gough, Wells and Gary Pratt falling in the opening few minutes to leave Durham on 5-3! Jon Lewis, again looking in good form and Nicky Peng then put together a stand of 75 with both of them playing sensible cricket.

The stand came to an end when Peng was caught by Alleyne off his own bowling for 37. Danny Law was unable to add to his good performance with the ball and fell soon after, also to Alleyne having scored just 2 runs.

Andy Pratt then joined his captain and again outscored his brother but only managed 12 runs. Jon Lewis completed his third half century in as many innings but was out soon afterwards for 54. Jon has already scored more than half the total number of runs he scored last season!

Play finished early due to rain and the weather probably holds the best chance for Durham to escape without a second successive championship defeat. It looks likely that they will be force to follow on, still 64 runs away from the follow on target.