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Mohammad Ashraful has been awarded a top-level central contract despite not playing in Bangladesh’s recent historic 4-0 one-day series victory against New Zealand. He is one of six players handed an A+ deal with the board and is among 16 contracts handed out across four levels along with two rookie players.Ashraful has been in and out of the Bangladesh squad throughout the year, which began with him missing the home series against England in March before being recalled for the return contest during May and June where he played both Tests at Lord’s at Old Trafford. Following a poor Asia Cup in Sri Lanka he was then dumped again only to be recalled as injury cover during the one-dayers in England.However, patience again ran out for the visit of New Zealand last month where Bangladesh secured their first series victory against major opposition but Ashraful, who averages a disappointing 23.45 after 163 ODIs, is clearly still close to the selectors’ thoughts with four months to go until the World Cup.The other players handed top contracts are unsurprising with Tamim Iqbal, who missed the New Zealand series with a wrist injury, named alongside captain Mashrafe Mortaza, Shakib Al Hasan, Abdur Razzaq and Mushfiqur Rahim.The A-band of deals on the level below include Junaid Siddique, who has been a solid presence at No. 3 during the year after hitting his maiden Test century against England in Chittagong, along with allrounder Mahmudullah and fast bowler Shahadat Hossain.Raqibul Hasan, the middle-order batsman, who angrily announced his retirement during England’s tour to Bangladesh after being omitted from the squad before reversing his decision, has been given a C-grade contract. Enamul Haque, the left-arm spinner, and middle-order batsman Mehrab Hossain were the two players not to have their contracts renewed from the previous batch.Bangladesh’s next assignment will be hosting Zimbabwe for a one-day series some time before Christmas and that is another contest they will be expected to win following the impressive displays against New Zealand.Grade A+ Masrafe Bin Mortaza, Shakib Al Hasan, Mohammad Ashraful, Abdur Razzak, Mushfiqur Rahim, Tamim IqbalGrade A Shahadat Hossain, Junaid Siddique, MahmudullahGrade B Syed Rasel, Raqibul Hasan, Nazmul Hossain, Naeem Islam, Imrul Kayes, Rubel HossainGrade C Shafiul IslamRookie Grade Jahurul Islam, Mohammad Sohrawordi

Worcestershire have appointed opening batsman Daryl Mitchell as their captain for 2011 and secured his services with a new four-year contract.Mitchell took over on a temporary basis for a memorable final five weeks of the season after Vikram Solanki quit following the defeat against Glamorgan at Colwyn Bay. He lost only one game in charge and helped them pull off promotion from Division Two of the County Championship.Mitchell was a product of Worcestershire’s academy system and made his debut five years ago. Now appointed captain on a permanent basis, he committed his future to the county until the end of the 2014 season.Worcestershire director of cricket Steve Rhodes said: “I am absolutely delighted that Daryl’s services of captaincy are secured for next season, and that he has committed his future to the club with a four-year contract.”I am enjoying working with Daryl, and look forward to seeing his progression as captain.”Mitchell, who made 1,180 first-class runs this year, said “I am very pleased to commit my future to Worcestershire and it is an honour to be made captain.”

ScorecardSreesanth’s lacklustre show will be a cause of worry for the the Indian team’s management•AFP

The Australians had a satisfactory first day of cricket on their tour of India. Two of their batsmen scored centuries without much fuss, and two others seemed on the way. On a pitch that was expectedly slow, thanks to unseasonal rains until earlier this week, Shane Watson and Simon Katich hardly looked like getting out, and Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke followed suit with an unbroken 87-run partnership. It is unlikely now that Australia will consider splitting Watson and Katich at the top during this tour.The first day of the game didn’t bring any good news for India. Not only did the tourists look in form, India’s two Test bowlers – Sreesanth and Pragyan Ojha – bowled 34 overs without a wicket. Apart from bowling 13 unimpressive overs and sliding down the leg side often, Sreesanth let slip four boundaries in the field. The first of those could have been a catch at backward point. The last left him grimacing with a cramp in the calf, and he hobbled off the field, with the new ball just around the corner. However, he is likely to bowl on the second day.Ojha, too, seemed to have picked a stomach ache in the afternoon session. That Ojha, who was strictly steady, was the pick of the bowlers says how good the day was for the Australians. The only time their balcony looked concerned – and that too mildly – was when a bus tyre went flat outside the stadium with a loud explosion. Even that ended with some in their support staff taking pictures. By then, without any explosiveness, their openers were entrenched in the middle.Katich, who was quicker than Watson, didn’t make the smoothest of starts, though. He had trouble adjusting to the slowness of the pitch, and his bat face closed early on a few occasions when facing the left-arm seamer Jaidev Unadkat. Apart from that, none of three fast bowlers posed any threat. Neither of the openers was made to play straight, and neither was looking to take any risks.Katich looked more comfortable against spin than Watson. He was quick to late-cut, and flick into the leg side with both spinners turning the ball into his pads. Watson was beaten on a few occasions by Piyush Chawla’s legbreaks. Ojha bowled tightly – his 21 overs went for just 23 – and had a couple of close lbw shouts against Watson, but the batsman was well forward on both occasions.The battle between Ojha and Katich was more interesting. Katich preferred staying back and cutting, Ojha fancied hitting that in-between length and sneaking in through the gap or making Katich play on. Katich did chop a few off the underside edge, but none of them was close to his stumps.Both the batsmen had reached similar scores at similar strike-rates by lunch, but Katich took the lead after the interval. Just after reaching his fifty, he edged Unadkat twice, first wide of second slip and then just short of him. That, along with a tough run-out chance against Watson, which Wriddhiman Saha missed, was the closest the BP XI came to a wicket.Tim Nielsen, the coach, realised these two were not going to get out, and took turns to give Clarke, Marcus North, Phil Hughes and Steven Smith throw-downs in the adjoining nets. By the time he returned from the nets, Katich had reached his century and Watson was nearing it. During that middle session, Gautam Gambhir, the home captain, got Ravindra Jadeja to keep signalling towards the dressing room for Ojha to return on the field. ” [Stomach ache],” came the reply. Not that Ojha would have been lining up to bowl.Watson went to tea five short of his century, and came back with a new partner as the Australians decided that Katich had had enough of a look-in. Perhaps Watson knew the same would happen to him once he reached the hundred, or it was his usual nerves in the 90s, he took 17 more balls to raise three-figures. As he got there with a sweep, he seemed to have done a hamstring. He got back up, though, and opened fire at Chawla, hitting him for 14 runs in the next over. At the end of it, though, he was bowled while going for another boundary.The others too batted without much trouble. Ponting made a slightly iffy start, not reading the spinners’ lengths early, but Chawla let him get away by feeding him two long-hops early on. The first ball Clarke faced on the tour, he jumped out of the crease, got to the pitch of the ball, and then pushed it wide of mid-off for one. There was to be more exemplary footwork later in the innings, when he charged at Chawla and lofted him for a straight boundary. The next ball, he seemed to be charging down again, but transferred his weight back in a flash to cut a slightly flat delivery for four.The new ball, take for the last four overs of the day, didn’t have much impact either, and “retired not out” is likely to be the most favoured way of changing batsmen on the second day.

ScorecardKevin Pietersen made 0 and 1 on his first-class debut for Surrey•PA Photos

Kevin Pietersen scored just 1 as he endured another difficult day as Surrey’s County Championship Division Two match with Glamorgan ended in a tame draw.Pietersen is on loan with Surrey until the end of the season in an attempt to recapture his form after losing his England place, and he looked to be back to his best after scoring 116 in a Clydesdale Bank 40 game against Sussex last Saturday, his first century in any cricket for 18 months.But Pietersen’s struggles in first-class cricket continued. Out for a duck in the first innings, he came in after Surrey had lost openers Tom Lancefield and Jason Roy in successive overs and Mark Ramprakash soon followed to leave Surrey 14 for 3.Pietersen settled for a period of defence and needed 17 balls to get off the mark with a single into the leg side. But having faced 23 deliveries in 34 minutes he was palpably leg-before to James Harris trying to work across a straight one and only half-forward.He will play one more Championship game for Surrey against Gloucestershire in Bristol before heading back to his native South Africa to play for Durban-based Dolphins in two first-class games between October 7-17.Pietersen’s dismissal left Surrey tottering on 21 for 5, Harris having taken 4 for 18 in 10 overs with the new ball, and at that stage Glamorgan harboured hopes of claiming an unlikely victory.But Chris Schofield and Gary Wilson dug their side out of a hole with a stand of 124 with Schofield falling just short of his hundred before the players shook hands at 4.20pm with Surrey 206 for 7.Surrey had wrapped up Glamorgan’s first innings with the sixth ball of the day when Huw Waters was lbw to Jade Dernbach, but the Surrey batsmen were soon struggling on a pitch still offering some new-ball assistance.Lancefield got a leading edge trying to pull Harris in the fifth over and was caught at cover and Waters struck when Roy carelessly carved to backward point in the next over.Ramprakash failed to cope with Harris’s extra bounce as he edged to second slip and Harris struck again when Rory Hamilton-Brown played all around a straight one.Pietersen’s departure left Surrey only 127 ahead but it was the last success Glamorgan were to enjoy for 43 overs as Schofield and Wilson fought back. Wilson offered a sharp return catch on 6 which Harris spilled in his followthrough but after lunch the pair began to play more expansively.Wilson fell for 45 when when he speared a drive to extra cover but Surrey’s lead was 251 by then and any chance of a positive result had gone. Schofield was 10 short of what would have been only his second first-class century when he was stumped down the leg side trying to hit over the top, having faced 203 balls and hit 11 fours.Glamorgan’s failure to win made sure that Sussex will go up as champions but Worcestershire’s victory over Middlesex means the Welsh county will have to beat Derbyshire next week to make sure of going up.

ScorecardMiddlesex took just 77 minutes to complete victory over Surrey by an innings and 44 runs on the third day at Lord’s despite dogged resistance from Chris Tremlett who produced an unbeaten half century.It meant the hosts took maximum points from a County Championship fixture for the first time in 28 games and inflicted their first defeat by an innings over their historic rivals since 1995 with only one victory in the intervening time, in 2004.Surrey, in contrast, took a solitary point from the match after two of their three bowling bonus points were deducted for a slow over-rate. The last time they were so trounced by Middlesex, an EGM at The Oval called for wholesale manageme changes, though the petitioners were not immediately successful.Surrey cricket manager Chris Adams said: “We’ve just got to take this on the chin and re-group”. He also revealed fitness doubts over Andre Nel, Surrey’s spearhead bowler, for the rest of the season. At least the few Surrey fans who turned up had something to cheer in the performance of Tremlett, whose undefeated 53 required only 42 balls and was his first fifty since joining the county this year.The England fast bowler had made six fifties in his Hampshire days but none was quite as exotic as this. After Surrey resumed 146 behind at 110 for 6, Tremlett arrived at the crease when Gareth Batty was magnificently caught by Josh Davey who, diving to his right, held on to a full-blooded drive one-handed at short extra cover.This gave Tim Murtagh his one wicket in the innings off the day’s 13th ball but Tremlett was immediately dropped off the next by Owais Shah at third slip. Escaping before he had scored, he dominated a stand of 67 runs in 62 balls before Stewart Walters, swinging at a wide one, attempted one Twenty20 shot too many.Caught behind, Walters went for 43 to Pedro Collins who had been brought back into the attack after punishment to Toby Roland-Jones. The inexperienced youngster was given just one over before being wisely withdrawn when it was smashed for 12 runs. He had done the real damage yesterday evening with his maiden five-wicket haul and finished with 5 for 41.Shaun Udal, greeted by Tremlett with a six off his fifth ball, removed Jade Dernbach after another 29 came in 21 balls and then Collins ended the innings next over.

Fast bowler Lasith Malinga has been named in the 16-member Sri Lanka squad for the three-Test series against India beginning on July 18, setting him up for a return to Tests after two-and-a-half years . However, there was no place for spinner Ajantha Mendis, who tormented India during their previous Test visit two years ago.Malinga played his last Test against England at Galle in 2007 before a knee injury laid him low and forced him out of cricket for nine months. Malinga was cured by Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse’s personal physician Dr Eliyantha White and since then his appearances for his country has been only in limited-over internationals and in Twenty20 Internationals.Malinga’s return to Test cricket was slow because the team physio did not want to push him too early to play in the longer version of the game. However selection committee sources stated that they had got the greenlight from physio Tommy Simsek who has been monitoring Malinga’s progress carefully that he was now fully fit to play in a five-day Test match.”Malinga has nine more days before the first Test against India and we are confident he will be fit to play. He has been bowling long spells at the nets and has shown no side effects,” a selection committee source said. Since making his Test debut against Australia at Darwin in 2004, Malinga has played in 28 Tests and captured 91 wickets.The other members of the fast-bowling department are Dilhara Fernando, Chanaka Welegedara and Dammika Prasad.Offspinner Muttiah Muralitharan who is due to retire at the end of Galle Test has also been named in the squad along with left-arm spinner Rangana Herath and young off-spinner Suraj Randiv who is likely to take Muralitharan’s place for the rest of the series. Mendis, who became a star with 26 wickets in three Tests against India when they visited in 2008, was left out.The Sri Lanka Board President’s team to take on India in a three-day practice match ahead of the Tests was also named. Thilan Samaraweera will lead the side which includes first-choice Test keeper Prasanna Jayawardene and promising batsmen Lahiru Thirimanne, Ashan Priyanjan and Dinesh Chandimal.Test squad: Kumar Sangakkara (capt), Muttiah Muralitharan (vc), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Tharanga Paranavitana, Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Angelo Mathews, Prasanna Jayawardene, Lasith Malinga, Rangana Herath, Dilhara Fernando, Dammika Prasad, Suraj Randiv, Thilina Kandamby, Chanaka Welegedara, Lahiru Thirimanne.Sri Lanka Board President’s XI: Thilan Samaraweera (capt), Upul Tharanga, Lahiru Thirimanne, Thilina Kandamby, Prasanna Jayawardene (wk), Ashan Priyanjana, Kaushal Silva, Chanaka Welegedara, Dilhara Fernando, Chaminda Vidanapathirana, Sachitra Senanayake, Ajantha Mendis, Nuwan Pradeep, Kusal Janith, Dinesh Chandimal

Glenn McGrath has been able to achieve something with fast bowlers that Shane Warne couldn’t with legspinners, by inspiring a production line of next-generation quicks. Steven Smith, who is currently showing promise, is the closest to a successful Warne clone despite every young cricketer wanting to bowl like him when he was playing. But there are fast men dotted around the world who carry McGrath’s characteristics.Stuart Clark was the first “next McGrath” and has been followed at New South Wales by Josh Hazlewood, who made his ODI debut last week. In England it’s almost impossible for something to be written about Steven Finn, the 201cm 21-year-old, without mentioning the man who took 563 Test wickets. They join Pakistan’s Mohammad Asif, South Africa’s Morne Morkel and the Ashes-winning Stuart Broad in modelling themselves on McGrath – or wanting to be like him.Over the past two weeks Australia A have benefited from the McGrath-like work of Peter George, a South Australian fast bowler, who took 11 wickets in two first-class games against Sri Lanka A. Apart from his height and ability to operate at a pace in the mid-130s, George has also picked up some McGrath mannerisms and comparisons.”It’s a pretty high compliment for me, if I could be half of what he was then I’d be pretty happy with that,” George told Cricinfo. “Glenn was always a hero of mine growing up. It’s something that does come out in a lot of young kids, you can usually tell who they idolised when growing up.”At 23, George is surprised to be still growing and was 203cm at his last measure, 8cm taller than his role model. Extra bounce caused by his high release point is his major weapon, but he has also been working at the Academy over the past two winters on developing a consistent outswinger. Craig McDermott, a man who mastered high pace and swerve, has been advising him along with Troy Cooley, the bowling coach, at the Centre of Excellence.”The main thing I try to do is stay tall and use my height, and get as much bounce as I can,” he said. “Any movement is a bonus on top of that.”The extra lift caused the trouble for Sri Lanka A’s batsmen in Queensland. George collected 4 for 13 in the first innings of the second game in Townsville, which followed his 5 for 84 at Allan Border Field. Each performance helped set up a convincing win while increasing his first-class tally to 18 games.”It’s been a really good couple of weeks, spending some time around some senior cricketers,” he said. “It’s been a really good experience.” In both matches he bowled in partnership with Ben Hilfenhaus, who leaves on Friday to join the Test team in England, and was impressed with the amount of swing the Tasmanian achieved.George is not part of Australia A’s limited-overs fixtures, which start with a Twenty20 in Townsville on Friday, and was back at the Academy on Tuesday to prepare for their upcoming series. Once those engagements conclude he will return to South Australia hoping to build on his encouraging first two seasons.After taking 36 Sheffield Shield wickets last summer, George was awarded a brief introduction to life as an international when he was flown to New Zealand as Test cover for Ryan Harris. The visit lasted only three nights, but he got to bowl at training on Test eve before leaving after the match began.”It would have been nice to have hung around for a bit longer,” he said. “But the time that I was there was really valuable. It was a bit of a taste, I’m keen to get back there if I can.”

ScorecardWhisper it quietly, but Surrey may have turned a corner. After a few grim years when the club has plumbed the depths of mediocrity (and then kept digging), there are early signs that the first green shoots of recovery may be poking through. Not only has Surrey’s Twenty20 form improved (after a poor start, they are now fourth in the South Group), but they’re second in their Clydesdale Bank 40 group and here have shown that their dire position in the championship is likely to improve.Perhaps such optimism should be tempered. There was a time, not so long ago, when a dominant performance against Derbyshire – and a weakened Derbyshire at that – would have been nothing less than expected.Not anymore. Last season Surrey won just a single championship game, while they reached the halfway stage this year rooted to the foot of the championship table. The days when they could approach any fixture with complacency are long gone.They are well on top in this game. They had a lead of 154 after both sides had batted once and, but for an injury to one of their seamers, would surely have enforced the follow-on. Still, with the pitch showing increasing signs of uneven bounce, their lead of 204 going into the third day already looks imposing.That Derbyshire are still in the game at all is largely due to the efforts of Wayne Madsen and Lee Goddard.Coming together with their side reeling at 81 for 6, the pair added 137 in 36 overs for the seventh wicket, with Madsen recording his third century of the campaign and Goddard his first half-century. The next highest contribution was extras, with 16.For some, the likes of Madsen will always represent everything that is wrong in English cricket. South African born, he is 26-years-old and currently qualifying to play for England. While international cricket may prove a step too far for him, he looks a decent county player. A tendency to plant his front foot will always make him an lbw candidate, but he leaves the ball very well, drives neatly and has admirable powers of concentration.He needed this innings, though. He had scored just 77 runs in his previous seven championship innings but, while his colleagues paid the price for their fallibility outside off stump, Madsen showed the virtue of restraint.Goddard hasn’t enjoyed the best of form, either. The 27-year-old, who returned to Derbyshire from Durham in search of first-team cricket at the end of last season, lost his place to Tom Poynton a few weeks ago. Here, however, he neatly compiled the third half-century of his first-class career and seemed to have taken his side to within an inch of avoiding the follow-on.Both Goddard and Madsen may feel that the manner of their departure undid some of their good work, however. While the reverse sweep has become an accepted part of the modern game, neither man had played the shot until the ball that dismissed them and, in other circumstances, falling five short of the follow-on mark would have had match-defining consequences.The key moment of the day came earlier, however. Tim Linley had threatened to run through the Derbyshire batting with a well-controlled spell of medium-fast seam bowling, but suddenly pulled-up midway through his run-up and left the field in obvious pain. He was later diagnosed with ligament damage and won’t bowl again in the match.It was a completely different game after his departure. While Andre Nel and Chris Tremlett bowled pretty well, the support seamers – Stewart Walters and Younis Khan – allowed Goddard and Madsen to settle in with some comfort.Until that point, Surrey had been utterly dominant. Linley, with 4 for 13, expertly exploited a small ridge on the pitch and, at one stage, claimed 3 for 3 in 15 balls. Though he won London CC’s ‘search for a star’ bowling competition in 2005, Linley is never likely to be a star in the Surrey dressing room. He’s not blessed with great pace or outrageous skill and, on the flattest of pitches, can look a little toothless.He’s a useful player, though. Here he landed the ball on the perfect length and gained enough bounce and movement to trouble all the batsmen. As Chris Adams, Surrey’s cricket manager, put it: “maybe he’ll never get the best in the world out, but he’ll bowl up hill and into the wind all day. He reminds me of Mark Robinson.”Garry Park was undone by bounce, prodding outside off stump, Greg Smith lost his off and middle stumps when he missed one that nipped back, Chesney Hughes edged one angled across him and Wes Durston simply missed a straight one. Earlier Chris Rogers was also a victim of bounce, flashing a catch to point, while Robin Peterson edged to slip and Steffan Jones was pinned on the foot by a yorker.Nel looked dangerous with the new ball and delivered more overs than anyone, while there was an encouraging display from Tremlett, too. While he didn’t quite maintain the requisite control, he did generate decent pace and, at times, alarming bounce. He gave the impression of a man just coming to the boil. Perhaps his, and his new club’s, best days may be yet to come.

Michael Clarke is the best batsman by far in Australia’s Test team and comfortably the least productive in Twenty20s. He is also the captain and has led the side in 15 matches, winning 12 times and losing once. It was a big defeat – the World Twenty20 final – but his leadership is not what is in doubt. He is still being groomed for the Test captaincy and his current troubles will develop his experience base for Ricky Ponting’s role when the incumbent steps down.It is two years until the next global Twenty20 event and Clarke is unlikely to be there unless he transforms his batting approach of slicing gaps into more bombing of balls into grandstands. As Clarke understands, subtlety is not necessary in this format. By sprinting singles and finding regular twos, he thought he was doing the right thing by his team. He wasn’t.”I certainly know they [my performances] haven’t been up to scratch through this whole tournament and probably in Twenty20 cricket in general,” Clarke said after the final defeat in Barbados. “I’m sure the selectors will sit down and have a look and if I’m not the right guy for No. 3 and the captaincy then they’ll make that decision.”Australia need more of Clarke’s Christchurch outlook – he blasted 67 off 45 balls there in February – and less of his jogging in the Caribbean. In seven games he managed 92 runs at an average of 15.33 and a strike-rate of 80.70, making him the side’s modern-day incarnation of Geoff Marsh, the batting anchor of the 1980s. The next lowest strike-rate, including the bowlers, was Brad Haddin’s 102.08.He deserves a chance to change and there is no rush for an overall. This is not like the 50-over World Cup, which signals a clear-out as teams re-focus for an event four years ahead. Before the next World Twenty20 there are oodles of opportunities for players to emerge through the various domestic leagues. Except for Clarke.By being a Test and one-day master Clarke won’t be able to practise raising his short game. International Twenty20 engagements over the rest of the year are rare and there will be only three on offer for Australia during the home summer. New South Wales, his state side, are not in the Champions League, he doesn’t play in the IPL, and he won’t get to turn out in Australia’s Big Bash.If he can’t morph into a batting hare, a smooth transition will be much easier to achieve next year. Ponting, 35, will probably retire from ODIs at the end of the World Cup in April, having attempted a fourth win in a row, and Clarke can take over in a format he is at one with. That will allow him to shed the Twenty20 demands and let the regeneration of the T20 set-up to occur with a new leader. Cameron White is the current vice-captain but the personnel in this squad can alter so rapidly that Tasmania’s George Bailey might also be a contender.Until then Clarke must remember the strokes of his youth when he bats in Twenty20s. The drives over cover, the hooks in the air and the freedom of belting the ball without worrying about the consequences. This was the attitude that blew him into Test cricket with a century on debut in Bangalore – he hit four sixes to Adam Gilchrist’s three – and another one in his first game at home against New Zealand. At the Gabba he reached three figures with two pulled fours and a three in the over before lunch.At the time he was the breathtaking wonder boy of Australian cricket. After he was cut from the Test side a year later he eliminated those riskier elements, growing into the country’s most professional batsman, and hasn’t been able to re-programme them.”That’s the thing, if I play like that, that’s probably why I got dropped,” Clarke said in November. “You have your day in the sun sometimes then miss out five times.” One awesome day every six matches in Twenty20 means there is no talk of you getting the sack.

ScorecardIan Blackwell completed a fine all-round match as he sparked Durham’s run chase•Getty Images

Ian Blackwell propelled champions Durham to a thrilling five-wicket win against Hampshire in the County Championship match at Chester-le-Street. While opener Kyle Coetzer anchored their pursuit of 260 in 57 overs, continuing his excellent start with a polished 72, Blackwell turned what threatened to be a scramble into a stroll.Durham needed 139 in 27 overs when the former Somerset all-rounder went in, but once he had stroked 20 off his first six balls the pressure was off. James Tomlinson had been the only real threat for Hampshire, taking two wickets for 20 runs in two excellent five-over spells. But when Nic Pothas gambled by replacing him with teenage left-arm spinner Danny Briggs his second ball was smashed for a huge straight six by Blackwell.Following his 83 in the first innings, Blackwell also cleared the rope off Sean Ervine on the way to a 36-ball half-century. The target was 44 off 10 overs when he departed for 62, chipping Briggs to midwicket, leaving young Ben Stokes and Phil Mustard to secure victory with 23 balls to spare. Stokes was on 27 and Mustard reached 32 by finishing the match with a six over midwicket off Briggs.Blackwell could have been out for 47 when a leading edge off Briggs lobbed over the bowler and Ervine, running round from extra cover, failed to hang on to a diving effort. Two balls after that Coetzer got out when 72 were needed off 16 overs, lifting Briggs to deep midwicket. But the three powerful left-handers in Durham’s middle order ensured that the runs came easily in the end.The target was a little stiffer than they would have wanted, but it might soon have been beyond them had Callum Thorp not held a superb catch at long on to end Hampshire’s last-wicket stand of 30. After trailing by 39 in the first innings, the visitors led by 230 with one wicket standing at lunch, but Ervine did an excellent job of keeping the strike until he went for a big hit off Stokes in the sixth over after the break.It was very firmly struck, but Thorp reached high to his left to hold the catch and Ervine was out for 46 with the total on 298. Durham took 48 minutes to make the breakthrough in the morning and then it came courtesy of a silly run by Pothas. Coetzer took advantage with a slick piece of fielding at cover to run out nightwatchman Tomlinson.When Ervine started going for his shots it seemed Hampshire were thinking about accelerating towards a declaration. He twice drove the out-of-sorts Thorp through extra cover for four then lifted Mark Davies over midwicket for six. But after putting on 45 in eight overs he lost Pothas when the acting captain gloved a leg-side catch to Mustard off Liam Plunkett to depart for 76.After that the visitors’ best hope was a draw, although Durham lost Michael Di Venuto for 18 with the score on 28 in the eighth over, when he followed an away swinger from Tomlinson and edged to first slip.Skipper Will Smith timed the ball better than in previous innings this season and contributed 20 to a stand of 50 with Coetzer before being caught off a top-edged sweep off Briggs. Dale Benkenstein fell for 10 when he was adjudged lbw to a full-length swinger from Tomlinson. But for the second time in the match Blackwell rapidly took it away from Hampshire.