ROCKY and the Duke, with a little help from the Colonel, marshalled Durham to a respectable total on the first day of their championship match at home to Sussex.

Mark “Rocky” Stoneman took the fight to the visitors in the first half of the day, but when he was seventh out after making a pugnacious 113 out of 202 Durham were in danger of under-achieving.

That’s when John (the Duke) Hastings and Phil Mustard came together in a stand of 77 before Paul Coughlin and Chris Rushworth put on 47 for the last wicket to lift the total to 337.

In six overs’ batting Sussex replied with 20 without loss.

Stoneman, who will be 27 on Thursday, took five years to become fully established but has scored three centuries in each of the last two seasons and now has ten in total.

Yesterday’s came off 129 balls with 15 fours and a six and was one of his most valuable in view of how the others struggled against the swinging ball.

Stoneman felt Durham’s total was a good one, saying: “We are certainly in the game. Sussex used the heavy roller between innings, which deadened the pitch a bit, but hopefully it will be a bit livelier in the morning.

“The first 45 minutes were probably the hardest I’ve had this season.

They were very accurate and there wasn’t a lot to score off.

“It got easier as the ball started to get softer, but they got it changed straight after lunch and the replacement was harder and bounced more.”

Durham chose to bat on a sunny morning and slipped to 30 for three before Ben Stokes contributed 36 to a stand of 102.

They then stumbled again before Sussex found themselves in a battle with Hastings.

The big Australian, who arrived with a top first-class score of 93, provided the perfect example of how to capitalise after carefully playing yourself in.

He took 25 balls to get off the mark and 49 balls later he reached 50. He then played on for 51 against the second new ball.

For the second time in a week Mustard was happy to play second fiddle in an important lower order stand.

Despite putting on 150 with Paul Coughlin against Lancashire, he is still struggling to find his best form and departed for 25.

He was one of six victims of edged catches, all off someone called Lewis.

The beneficiary of some good slip catching was ex- Gloucestershire veteran Jon Lewis, while left-armer Lewis Hatchett included three regulation catches by wicketkeeper Ben Brown in his five scalps.

It was only the second fivewicket haul of his career, four years after the first.

As complaints about balls going soft grow louder, Sussex succeeded in having the original changed in the first over after lunch and the replacement continued to swing all afternoon.

In the circumstances the number of times the less experienced seamers allowed themselves to be cut and pulled by Stoneman was inexcusable.

Until Jon Lewis improved in his second spell, the metronomic Steve Magoffin was twice as economical as everybody else in conceding two an over.

That he was rewarded with only one wicket was a clear indication of how unfair cricket can be.

That was underlined when last man Rushworth whacked him over extra cover for four then top-edged a pull over the wicketkeeper for six to bring up the 300.

He went on to score 32 off 18 balls.

Without Chris Jordan and James Anyon, Sussex looked a little short of quality support in the seam department, while off-spinner James Tredwell, on loan from Kent, was reminded that this is a twirler’s graveyard.

Hatchett took two of the early wickets, continuing the disappointing runs for the two South Africans, Keaton Jennings and Michael Richardson.

They started the season well, but after both were dismissed for five Jennings has 120 runs from his last eight innings and Richardson 38 from his last five.

Richardson was well forward to a ball which appeared to go straight through to Brown, but it had brushed his pad and, to his obvious surprise, he was given out lbw by umpire Nick Cook.

Scott Borthwick fell to Magoffin for ten when a firm push flew into the hands of cover point.

Stokes got away with missing a couple of airy drives early on, but once he began to middle the ball he played some blistering strokes in reaching 32 at lunch.

He was becalmed afterwards and added only four before miscuing to mid-on.

The Hatchett job continued when Paul Collingwood pushed forward and edged to Brown for seven.

While Magoffin moved the ball both ways, Jon Lewis generally shaped it away from the right handers and also found a little extra bounce to have Gordon Muchall caught at first slip for 19.

When Lewis got one to hold its line Stoneman edged it to second slip, where Tredwell held a good right-handed catch.

But the addition of 135 runs after that gave Durham cause for satisfaction.

Durham v Sussex

At Emirates Durham ICG.

Durham First Innings
M D Stoneman c Tredwell b Lewis... 113
K K Jennings c B C Brown b Hatchett...... 5
S G Borthwick c Wells b Magoffin..... 10
M J Richardson lbw b Hatchett ............. 5
B A Stokes c Lewis b Hatchett ...........36
P D Collingwood c B C Brown b
Hatchett...................................................... 7
G J Muchall c Hamilton-Brown b Lewis..19
P Mustard c Hamilton-Brown b Lewis...25
J W Hastings b Lewis............................ 51
P Couglin not out ...................................22
C Rushworth c B C Brown b Hatchett ...32
Extras (lb6 nb6 pens 0)...... 12
Total (87.2 overs) .............. 337
Fall: 1-6 2-23 3-30 4-132 5-148 6-193
7-202 8-279 9-290
Magoffin 24-7-67-1. Hatchett 23.2-3-113-
5. Lewis 22-7-66-4. Piolet 10-3-45-0.
Tredwell 8-1-40-0.

Sussex First Innings Close
C D Nash not out ..................................... 8
L W Wells not out .................................... 9
Extras (lb1 nb2 pens 0)........ 3
Total 0 wkts (6 overs)..........20
To Bat: R J Hamilton-Brown, E C Joyce,
L J Wright, B C Brown, J C Tredwell,
S J Magoffin, S A Piolet, J Lewis, L J
Hatchett.
Rushworth 3-2-4-0. Hastings 3-0-15-0.