A swashbuckling innings from Durham’s all rounder Otis Gibson snatched his side the advanatge at the end of day three after the Surrey bowlers had toiled hard to make inroads into the home team’s line-up in the evening session.

Gibson arrived at the wicket with the score on 241 for six and with Surrey on a high having toiled hard to instigate a mini-collapse during the evening session. The former West Indian Test player smeared the ball all around the Riverside to snatch the advantage and put his side in a winning position going into the last day tomorrow.

A lively opening spell from Matthew Nicholson meant that progress was slow for Durham this morning and the pressure created ended up bringing about the downfall of Mark Stoneman, caught at slip. The agression continued from Nicholson and he got his due reward when he had Kyle Koetzer caught behind playing a rash cut stroke to the Surrey man’s effort ball.

Progress continued to be slow for the Durham batsmen, but they were also very aware that they carried a handy 49 run lead from the first innings. Michael Di Venuto continued in his normal manor, punishing the bad ball to take himself past his half century. He eventually took the home team to the break with the score on 147 for two.

With rain forcast for the afternoon session, there was a noticeable change of gear from Di Venuto, who began improvising against the spin of Harbhajan Singh. However with the introduction of Chris Jordan, the left-handed Australian attempted one shot too many and was subsequently caught at mid on for 77. His partnership with Shivnarine Chanderpaul had been worth 55 taking Durham up to 161, but the old adage in cricket was to prove true once more as the Chanderpaul went for 29 seven runs later.

A steady partnership between captain Dale Benkenstein and wicket keeper Phil Mustard meant that the score was ticked well past 200 before the rain came. Tea was taken early allowing less time to be lost and when the rain eventually stopped play resumed very quickly.

The break brought about the wickets of the captain, who was then followed by Mustard for an entertaining 44. The two quick wickets had got Surrey back in the game, however this was to change again as Gibson proceeded to hit the ball into the vacant areas of the field.

When he was finally caught behind for 55 from 60 balls, Durham were well and truly in the box seat with a lead of 373. There was time to add just the one more run before the close of play, with the Dynamos finishing on 325 for seven.

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