Cricket: Bainbridge hits out

Derbyshire 322 and 66-2

Durham 299

BUY A high-mileage motor car and you will usually get either a reliable runner that will go on for ever or a lot of expense for scant return. Cricketers are a little like that, as Durham know well; most of their recruits have come with bit on the clock. Now that Ian Botham has been scrapped, others must be wondering how close they are to the breaker's yard.

Two of the veteran collection made significant runs yesterday as Durham responded to Derbyshire's 322 with 299, but one should feel more secure than the other. Phil Bainbridge's 78, the mainstay of the innings, took his first-class aggregate for the summer to 802 at 36.5. By contrastGraeme Fowler's contribution this year has been a meagre 228 from 11 innings, including yesterday's hit-and-miss 54, which was his first half-century since his move from Lancashire.

If anxious glances are being cast over shoulders, they will be in the direction of Jimmy Daley and Stewart Hutton. While Daley was away with England Under-19s Hutton impressed with a 57.

Durham missed a third batting point by one run but made more than seemed likely after collapsing from 205 for 3 to 213 for 7, Hutton's loose chip to mid-off beginning a burst of four wickets in 11 balls for the Derbyshire's Ole Mortensen. Bainbridge departed, angrily, at 260 for 9 but Simon Brown batted with a flourish before claiming one of two wickets as Derbyshire extended their lead to 89.