Mark Butcher played a battling captains knock after his bowlers cleaned up the Durham batting line-up to leave honours even at the half way stage of the match. Butcher fell in the last over after crafting out 65 runs in difficult batting conditions at the Riverside.

Play did not get under way until 12:15 pm on day two and that was short lived as less than 5 overs were bowled before more rain came to the Riverside. After an early lunch Surrey made good use of a pitch that was offering more movement than on the previous evening. The first wicket of the day came after just 10 runs were added to the overnight score when Mark Stoneman was brilliantly caught by James Ormond at third slip off the bowling of Pedro Collins for 59. That was the first of seven wickets to be taken in the afternoon session by the Surrey attack for just 70 runs. Watch all of the wickets fall on Surrey TV.

James Ormond had missed the outside edge of the bat countless times and finally had some reward with the wicket of Dale Benkenstein for 67. The Durham captain edged the ball through to Jonathan Batty who took a sharp catch to his right. England’s Phil Mustard briefly demonstrated why he earned his international call-up with some stylish stroke making as he raced to 22. However, it was short lived as he was caught out at backward point when cutting in the air off Matthew Nicholson. The tall Australian also claimed the wicket of Graham Onions when he top-edged a pull shot and Jonathan Batty took the catch, leaving Durham 213 for eight. Young Chris Jordan then cleaned up the tail with some lively pace bowling. He was finding some good bounce from the Finchale End and worked over the Durham tail. He had Paul Wiseman caught behind whilst driving and then removed both Mark Davies and Neil Killeen with quick, unplayable yorkers that sent stumps flying. Jordan’s quick penetrative spell left Durham 224 all out and himself with figures of three for 32. The comeback on day two from the Surrey pace attack left Mark Butcher’s men in a strong position after they had let Durham off the hook on day one with some loose bowling in the evening session. The two Barbadians, Jordan and Collins, were the most threatening of the Surrey bowlers and were rewarded with 3 wickets apiece.

When Surrey batted the new ball was keeping the Durham bowlers very interested as they found life from the pitch. It was Onions who made the most of the new ball by consistently attacking the stumps and was rewarded with two wickets in the sixth over. Jonathan Batty was first to go when a ball kept a little low and hit the Surrey man on the pads, LBW for 5. Four balls later and Scott Newman went for 11 when he misjudged a leave and lost his off bail, Surrey 18 for two. Then came a patient stand between Butcher and Mark Ramprakash, with the former out scoring his more prolific partner. They saw off the threat of Harmison and then took advantage as the shine wore of the new ball. Butcher found scoring easier as he stoked beautifully through the off-side for a number of boundaries. Butcher reached fifty and took Surrey past 100, but lost Ramprakash for 31 with the partnership on 99. Onions came back into the attack and found Ramprakash’s edge whilst playing off the back foot and Neil McKenzie took the catch at first slip. In a last minute turn Butcher edge the penultimate ball of the day to first slip and Surrey closed the second day with the score on 123 for four.

Watch the highlights of day two on Surrey TV.

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