ALEX Hales and James Taylor bottled up their one-day expertise and dug deep into their reserves of patience as they set out to bat Durham out of the game at Chester-le-Street.

Coming together at 40 for two after Steven Mullaney had opened up with 33 off 35 balls, they added 43 in 16 overs before Hales played on against Chris Rushworth.

The ball breached the immaculate forward defensive he had presented throughout his innings of 16 off 63 balls.

It wasn't many, but in the context of the game his time at the crease was valuable and Nottinghamshire reached tea on 114 for four, leading by 196 Taylor remained alert to any chance to pull in his unbeaten 45 and after his first innings century Riki Wessels was handed a flying start by the return of the out-of-sorts Graham Onions. After conceding 37 in his opening six-over spell, he went for 22 in the first two overs of his second.

Durham's habit of losing a trio of wickets continued after lunch when the last three went down for one run, two of them to the deserving left-armer, Luke Wood.

Generally swinging the ball into the right-handers, he got one to hold its line to have Paul Collingwood caught at slip. Then after Vernon Philander had John Hastings lbw Wood knocked out two of Onions' stumps.

Having put on 65 for the first wicket, Durham were all out for 163, trailing by 82, which was quickly extended when Onions conceded 37 in six overs. He did have Brendan Taylor lbw, while Mullaney walked without waiting for the decision when he deflected a leg-side catch to Phil Mustard off Rushworth.