Cricket Round-up

The storm that threatened for much of the day never did break on The Riverside yesterday, allowing Durham to turn the screw on their visitors with an exaggerated care that was, at times, as painful to watch as it must have been for Middlesex to experience. Even so, it was hard not to feel sorry for Jon Lewis. It was August 2004 when the former Durham skipper last scored a century, and the closer the popular 35- year-old opener inched towards three figures, the harder he appeared to find it to put bat on ball. Middlesex did their best for him, turning a suicidal single into four overthrows that took him on to 99, but the leaden prod with which he steered Alan Richardson's wide outswinger straight to Ben Hutton at gully was that of a desperate man. Unkind as it sounds, it was probably as well for the home team that Lewis was put out of his misery. It enabled Ottis Gibson to hurry the scoring along before Durham were all out for 261, setting Middlesex an unlikely target of 368 to win. It looked even less likely after Durham's bustling young seamer Graham Onions had bowled both Middlesex openers.

Matt Windows struck an unbeaten 38 to lead Gloucestershire to a six-wicket win over in their Second Division encounter in Bristol. The long-serving batsman steered them to a victory target of 102 just before lunch and handed Northamptonshire their first Championship defeat of the campaign. It also marked a return to form for Windows, who had managed only 27 runs in his previous four first-innings this season. Gloucestershire resumed on eight for one and any hopes Northamptonshire had of an unlikely victory disappeared against solid batting from Philip Weston and Windows. It was Gloucestershire's first Championship success over Northamptonshire since 1998.

Glamorgan staved off a third consecutive championship defeat and denied Leicestershire victory with a disciplined batting performance at Grace Road. The visitors, forced to follow on, lost only four wickets on the final day - which they started on 37 for one, still 191 runs behind. A record-equalling secondwicket partnership of 173 between Daniel Cherry (91) and David Hemp (86) virtually ended Leicestershire's hopes of winning and the game drifted to a draw with Glamorgan closing on 267 for five.