Tufnell bowls Middlesex to innings victory

Middlesex placed themselves on top of the second division Cricinfo Championship table with a resounding victory, by an innings and 74 runs, over Durham at Lord's.

Phil Tufnell wrapped up the Durham second innings for 163 half an hour after lunch on the third day when he had Nicky Hatch caught on the leg side. That gave him his fifth wicket of the innings and match figures of eight for 87, bringing his tally of first-class wickets to 52 for the season.

Earlier, he had taken the 1,000th wicket of his first-class career when he dismissed Martin Love with his fourth ball of the innings. Four runs later he put the opposition in deeper trouble, on 47 for 3, with the wicket of Paul Collingwood.

Both batsmen, who had shared a stand of 92 in the first innings, were bowled by deliveries that kept low as they tried to force to leg. Tufnell had taken the two wickets in eleven balls without conceding a run.

Durham were made to follow on 237 runs behind on the first innings after their last wicket had fallen in the second over of the day on 187. The visitors were heading rapidly towards their fourth Championship defeat this season by lunch, having been reduced to 61 for five.

Chad Keegan claimed the last two wickets that fell in the morning session with successive balls; he brought one back to trap James Daley lbw for 22 and then took a diving one-handed return catch from Michael Gough with the total on 51.

There was some resistance from Durham's sixth wicket partnership of Nicky Peng and Danny Law who put on 86 in an hour.

But when Law was caught and bowled by Paul Weekes for 27 and Peng fell, top-edging a sweep off Tufnell, after a superb 66 which contained ten boundaries from confidently played strokes, the end came quickly with the eighth and ninth wickets falling on 157.