Durham seal victory over Worcestershire

Durham survived a first-over scare and irritating wait through the lunch interval before completing a seven-wicket win against Worcestershire two minutes into the final afternoon at Kidderminster.

The northerners lost skipper Jon Lewis to Andy Bichel's fourth ball of the day but went a long way towards wrapping up their second CricInfo Championship victory of the season in a partnership of 88 between Jimmy Daley and Martin Love.

Bichel's 50th wicket of the summer gave the hosts a short-lived glimmer of hope before his Queensland team-mate, Love, took the game away from them with a run-a-ball half-century.

It was his 11th time past 50 in 21 Championship innings and in the process he reached 1,000 runs in his first season in county cricket.

Love's imperious timing and Daley's more pugnacious methods combined to frustrate Worcestershire's seamers as Durham cruised toward their target of 115. Love hit 11 fours in making 58 until his habit of throwing away a platform re-emerged with a slash to Philip Weston in the gully off Stuart Lampitt.

Daley, close to giving a chance to second slip early in his innings, eventually reached 38 from 78 balls before he was lbw in the first over from slow left-armer Matt Rawnsley.

Paul Collingwood tried to apply the finishing touch before lunch with three boundaries, but played 20 other balls without scoring as Durham went to lunch at 113 for 3, only two runs short of their requirement.

The result was a major setback to Worcestershire's hope of making a late promotion challenge after successive wins against Derbyshire and Gloucestershire.