Flintoff Takes Ball to Avenge Duck

Andrew Flintoff's increasingly hapless search for batting form hit a new low yesterday when he was dismissed for a third consecutive championship duck by a converted wicketkeeper who came into this game without a single first-class scalp.

Yet Flintoff ended the day with such an irresistible bowling performance, reminiscent of his 2005 pomp, that the England selectors surely could not consider omitting him from their team for next week's first Test. He took three wickets in four overs without conceding a run, the last of them Paul Collingwood caught behind off a leg-cutter which he did remarkably well to edge. "What I've faced from Fred in the last couple of days has been hairy stuff," Collingwood reflected later.

Assuming England will not risk Flintoff as part of a four-man attack so early in his comeback from injury, that leaves the selectors facing a choice they were thought keen to avoid this weekend - omitting one of the six specialist batsmen in possession after the tour of New Zealand.

Yet Flintoff can never have looked less like an all-rounder capable of batting in the top six for England than in this match. Yesterday's innings may have lasted four balls longer than his last two in first-class cricket but, if anything, that made it even more worrying as he looked so desperately short of anything resembling form.

He had raised his bat in good-humored acknowledgment of the crowd's ironic cheers when he lunged forward to block the first ball he received from Garry Park, who joined Durham as second-team wicketkeeper three years ago. Flintoff even enjoyed the rare experience of being not out during a tea interval, admittedly having faced only one delivery more.

But in the first over of the evening session against Park's occasional medium pace he lasted only three further balls, driving extravagantly at the last of them and losing his off stump.

In Flintoff's defence it may have swung a little and Stuart Law had already departed in similar fashion to become Park's first championship victim. But the angry swish of his bat as he departed told its own story. "I'm sure he's a bit concerned but he's the type of batsman who can click with one shot," Collingwood said. "Hopefully that big innings is just around the corner."

Lancashire's Paul Horton continues to play them regularly, picking up where he left off last season with an excellent 108.