Anyon puts Durham in more trouble

Sussex took control of their Championship Division One game with Durham, reducing the visitors to 92 for 4 before rain forced an early close at Arundel.

That score represented a minor recovery for bottom-of-the-table Durham, who have yet to record a four-day win this season, after James Anyon had taken two wickets with successive balls to reduce them to one for two in the third over. Mark Stoneman struck a half-century but he was removed by Monty Panesar shortly before the lunch interval to put the hosts back in the ascendancy.

Although Durham's new captain Paul Collingwood had recovered from a broken hand to lead the side his luck did not hold at the toss and his batsmen soon found it a struggle in overcast, damp conditions after they were put in.

In his second over Anyon made the breakthrough when Will Smith fenced outside off stump and Mike Yardy dived to his left at second slip to take an excellent catch. Gordon Muchall lost his off stump to the next delivery driving airily but Ben Stokes did manage to avert the hat-trick.

Stokes was soon timing the ball sweetly and had hit four boundaries in his 20 when Steve Magoffin was rewarded for an excellent new-ball spell with a wicket in his seventh over. He tempted Stokes with extra width and his full-blooded drive was intercepted in front of his face by Yardy in the slips.

That left Durham 34 for 3 but opener Stoneman, who made a century in the equivalent fixture last season, and the experienced Dale Benkenstein staged a decent recovery with a stand of 50 in 13 overs.

Stoneman timed the ball crisply, accelerating to his second half-century of the season with a flurry of seven boundaries in 20 balls when Luke Wright and Kirk Wernars, who was making his first championship appearance of the season, came into the attack. But shortly after reaching his half-century off 80 deliveries with nine fours Stoneman, who had taken two boundaries off Panesar in his first over, missed an attempted pull at the left-arm spinner and was leg before.

There was just enough time for Collingwood to get off the mark with a boundary through the covers when rain forced the players off five minutes before lunch with 27.4 overs bowled. Umpires Nigel Llong and Neil Mallender made three afternoon inspections in the hope of making a resumption but further rain forced them to abandon the day's play shortly after 4pm.