Durham stage partial recovery against Hants

Durham recovered from the shock of losing three quick wickets to Hampshire seamer Alex Morris to end a truncated third day on 87 for four, 98 ahead, at Chester-le-Street.

In three spells of play 32 overs were bowled and after resuming on nine for no wicket Durham lost four wickets for 12 runs in 15 overs.

Martin Love and Danny Law then added 40 without further loss in eight overs in the second session and 26 in nine overs in the third.

Morris took three for five in seven overs when play began at 2.40 and he conceded four of those runs to a back-foot cover drive by Jon Lewis before taking his wicket.

Lewis pushed forward in Morris's second over and edged an outswinger to Adrian Aymes. In his next over a ball stood up at Jimmy Daley and lobbed off the shoulder of the bat high to the left of gully, where Giles White caught it one-handed.

Paul Collingwood then drove recklessly at a ball well wide of off stump to give Aymes a second catch.

James Schofield failed to take advantage of the helpful conditions from the other end, with most deliveries being allowed to pass by outside off stump.

He was replaced by Shaun Udal and in his second over the off spinner found surprising bounce with his arm ball and Nicky Peng edged it to slip.

That made it 21 for four but after an hour's torment Durham found respite from a brief storm and when play resumed at 5pm batting was much easier. Love finished on 43 and Law on 26.