Durham held up by Rikki Clarke effort

COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION ONE, Emirates Ground:
CLOSE OF PLAY, DAY TWO: Durham 288 & 78-0, Warwickshire 224
Durham 5pts, Warwickshire 4pts
Match scorecard

Clarke's 68 was his highest first-class score of the summer

Rikki Clarke hit a valuable 68 to rescue Warwickshire's reply on day two against Durham at Chester-le-Street.

Resuming on 7-0 in reply to Durham's 288, the Bears lost wickets regularly after Steve Harmison struck early on.

But, backed by Jim Troughton (44) and Tim Ambrose (31), Clarke marshalled the tail to guide the visitors to 224 as Callum Thorp finished with 4-54.

Darren Maddy then dropped Michael Di Venuto at slip as Durham closed on 78-0, a commanding lead of 142.

Di Venuto made the most of that let-off to finish the day unbeaten on 31, with partner Mark Stoneman 42 not out.

But despite conceding a first-innings lead of 64, there would have been welcome relief in the Warwickshire dressing room at the sight of Clarke and Boyd Rankin putting on 55 for the last wicket to give the Bears their first batting point for five games.

Indeed, so poor has their batting been that they had not passed 150 in the first innings of their four previous Championship games against Lancashire, Durham and Somerset twice.

It might have been have been different had Thorp not dropped Clarke at gully when he was 40.

Instead he went on to make his season's best score before slicing to point to give Chris Rushworth, who also accounted for Troughton and Rushworth, career-best figures of 3-46.