HAVING grumbled darkly about relegation in the wake of the one wicket defeat to Lancashire, this week was one of the most enjoyable and silly Durham have had in recent years and they haven’t even been to Lord’s yet.

Victory at Middlesex came after the opposition battled and failed to outdo the magical number 176 like they were on some kind of advanced version Sesame Street.

Both Scott Borthwick’s excellent first innings knock and his coincidentally similar length partnership for the fourth wicket with Ben Stokes effectively put the game beyond the hosts.

Paul Collingwood’s 50s and handy wickets shouldn’t be ignored, neither the steadying 74 not out from Gordon Muchall.

Also the contribution of Peter Chase in his second first class game as approximately the 300th quick bowler to represent Durham this season, which should have done enough to earn himself a contract for next year.

Borthwick and Collingwood’s excellent form continued into the Northamptonshire game, although their centuries will be long forgotten due to the session of bowling from Chris Rushworth which was as brilliant and the opposition were awful.

Despite great consistency in the Championship, Rushworth has not always been rewarded with the same volume of wickets but you wait for long enough and 15 turn up in a session.

With an improbable number of records smashed, including the best figures in a single first class session for 75 years, that spectre of relegation seemed like a fanciful memory and given the game took less than two days, it should be an ideal confidence boost ahead of Lord’s.

While he’ll undoubtedly be irritated by Stokes’ single first innings wicket which denied him the opportunity to replicate that hero of 2007 Ottis Gibson’s ten wicket haul, he has the opportunity at Lord’s to mimic a similar feat in lifting the cup.

Sadly they will be without John Hastings final game of this spell, although hopefully this won’t be the end of his Durham career.

His presence will be sorely missed this Saturday at Lord’s and should he not be available for the early part of the 2015 season due to IPL commitments, Durham will have a huge job trying to replace his all-round contribution.

If, as expected, he’s replaced at Lord’s by the inexperienced Paul Coughlin, bowling at the death and controlling the second powerplay will be huge issues for Durham.

While Stokes, Collingwood, Rushworth and Breese can be counted on to bowl more or less their full allocation, those remaining overs from Coughlin, Borthwick and even Keaton Jennings may well prove to be decisive.

While it’s perhaps asking too much for Stokes to repeat his semi-final heroics with the bat, the positivity that Mark Stoneman and Phil Mustard showed at the start of the innings allowed him to express himself.

There will also be pressure on Calum MacLeod who started his limited overs cricket with Durham in impressive form in the T20 Blast but has struggled in the 50 over competition, although he did post an impressive century for Scotland against Ireland before the Northamptonshire game.

Quite how Scott Borthwick is used as a batsman must also be up for debate given his sparkling Championship form.

He improbably came in at 10 in the semi-final, with Jennings preferred to try and rebuild the innings in a briefly sticky period but Borthwick has a strong argument to be doing that job if required in the middle overs.

Regardless of outcome though, Saturday will feel like a reward for what has been at times an infuriating season and if Rushworth can channel that 2007 Gibson magic, then all of that frustration will be forgotten.

JAMES TIERNAN