Steve Harmison blast seals Durham win over Warwickshire
COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION ONE, Emirates Ground: Durham 288 & 289 beat Warwickshire 224 & 134 by 219 runs Durham 21pts, Warwickshire 4pts Match scorecard
Harmison finished with match figures of 9-74
Steve Harmison ripped through the Warwickshire batting line-up to wrap up a 219-run victory for Durham on the final morning at Chester-le-Street.
The match seemed finely poised as the Bears resumed on 111-3 needing 243 more to win.
But they never looked like getting that from the moment Harmison pinned Ateeq Javid leg before in the third over.
He then polished things off in rapid style, ending with his county best 7-29 as the Bears collapsed to 134 all out.
In all, it took Durham only 10.2 overs in the space of 50 minutes to complete a surprisingly emphatic victory.
And central to it was Harmison, who sent out a reminder to the England selectors by becoming the first Durham bowler to take five wickets in a Championship innings this summer, passing 700 career first-class wickets in the process.
He came into the game with only nine first-class wickets this season, having been restricted to four matches because of back and ankle injuries.
But he doubled that tally in the course of this match, and took six of the seven wickets to fall on the final morning to complete Durham's win.
Mitch Claydon grabbed the other, following up Harmison's capture of Javid, by removing the off stump of the other overnight batsman Jim Troughton.
From then on it was the Harmison show, having four of his victims caught behind or in the slips and Boyd Rankin snared by Mark Stoneman at short leg.
Durham's win lifted the champions to fifth, 19 points behind leaders Nottinghamshire, while Warwickshire's sixth defeat increased their relegation worries.
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