Trott finds his groove before Durham hit back

Jonathan Trott put his demons behind him by scoring a fluent 76 as he and William Porterfield put Warwickshire into a dominant position until they lost three late wickets to Durham.

They slipped from 229 for 2 to 256 for 5 at the close of a match in which the morning session at Chester-le-Street had been washed out.

In the second Championship game of his comeback since his stress-related illness, Trott looked at ease in a third-wicket stand of 131 with Porterfield, who made 90. It was Trott's first first-class fifty since he made 83 for an England XI against a Cricket Australia Invitational XI in Sydney on November 14.

Always looking to be positive, Trott comfortably won his battle with former England colleague Graham Onions, making his comeback after two months out with a back injury.

Onions found some early swing but was never a serious threat on a placid pitch and finished with none for 60 in 15 overs.

Warwickshire were pleased to have Ian Westwood back after a broken finger as skipper Jim Troughton was ruled out by a recurrence of his back trouble, while Chris Woakes was withdrawn by the England selectors. After seeing Yorkshire enjoy an opening stand of 270 when he put them in at Headingley, Durham captain Paul Collingwood chose to field again.

Opposing captain Varun Chopra contributed 21 to an opening stand of 41 before chopping an attempted cut off John Hastings into his stumps.

Collingwood brought himself on when Warwickshire had reached 91 for 1. Westwood followed the first ball of his third over and edged to slip, but Trott scored six off the remaining five balls of the over.

Onions was recalled but Trott whipped his first ball off his hips to long leg for four and it was not until he had cruised to 24 at tea that Durham tested him against the short ball by bringing back the 6ft 6in Hastings.

But Trott's only discomfort came from a couple of inside edges which might have spared him from being trapped lbw. He reached 50 off 66 balls then knuckled down as Porterfield began to struggle against Hastings.

Hastings said: "I spoke to Peter Siddle about bowling to Jonathan Trott in Warwickshire's last match, when he tested him with the short ball. I thought I would try the same plan, but he played it quite well. He got under a couple and rode a couple more round the corner."

Trott had looked secure in reaching an 81-ball 50 with a clip to midwicket for his tenth four, but then a leading edge lobbed just over mid-on and two edges flew wide of the slips to the vacant third man boundary.

When legspinner Scott Borthwick came on for the 62nd over, Porterfield tried to pull his third ball and hit the ball vertically for wicketkeeper Phil Mustard to take the catch.

Trott fell four overs from the close, chopping the first ball of a new Hastings spell to gully, then the Australian yorked nightwatchman Chris Wright in the final over.