SCOTT Borthwick fell six short of a richly-deserved century on another sunny morning at Taunton as Durham reached lunch on 224 for four, 74 behind, after adding 126 in the session.

Having outpaced Michael Richardson the previous evening, Borthwick settled in quietly this morning while his partner dominated with some fine strokes.

An elegant cover drive off Lewis Gregory gave Richardson his seventh four and took him to 50 off 61 balls.

The pair were neck and neck in the mid-50s, but then Borthwick forged ahead again. In the 32nd over he drove successive balls from Gregory for four, one straight down the ground and the other through extra cover.

A delicate dab to third man then brought him three more runs but Richardson fell to the next ball, feeling for a ball wide of off stump from Gregory and edging to wicketkeeper Alex Barrow. The No 4 batsman contributed 59 to a stand of 144.

There had been little threat from the bowling of two itinerants, Tim Groenewald and Jim Allenby, at the river end and the pickings were deceptively easy when lanky paceman Jamie Overton replaced Gregory.

Callum MacLeod had edged a four over the slips before settling down to bring a lengthy stare from Overton when driving him to the cover boundary.

There is always the danger of a good ball from an erratic paceman and Overton surprised Borthwick by pinning him on the crease with a good-length ball which had him lbw.

Paul Collingwood dismissively pulled Overton through mid-on to get off the mark and when left-arm spinner Abdur Rehmann came on MacLeod drove his first ball through extra cover.

The Scot continued to play nicely to reach 39 at lunch with Collingwood on 12.