WHATEVER good fortune Lady Luck chose to bestow on the participants at Emirates Riverside yesterday went the way of the Warwickshire batsmen until the final hour.

With left-handed opener Ian Westwood somehow surviving to make 127, the visitors reached 312 for seven at the close of the second day, leading by 105.

Durham turned round a deficit of 132 for a remarkable win at Edgbaston, but the best they can probably hope for this time is that today's forecast rain is sufficiently prolonged to give them a chance of a draw.

Graham Onions must be due a hatful of wickets when bottom club Nottinghamshire visit next week. His bad luck simply cannot continue, and Chris Rushworth's misfortune also stretched belief yesterday.

Westwood wasn't the only beneficiary and Onions flung up his arms in sheer exasperation when he beat Ian Bell for the umpteenth time on 45.

He had passed the visiting captain's outside edge three times on seven, then almost bowled him via inside edge and pad.

The lack of lbw appeals going in Onions' favour may have something to do with his tendency to prolong appeals and stare in disbelief when they are turned down. It may be better to smile nicely at the umpire and suggest: “That was close.”

There was finally a stroke of luck when Bell tickled one of Rushworth's poorer deliveries down the leg side to give Stuart Poynter a catch.

That was in the ninth over with the second new ball and two overs later Westwood edged Rushworth towards first slip and Scott Borthwick dived across from second slip to hold the catch.

Westwood's catalogue of lucky escapes in his first 50 was as follows: on 19 he survived a confident appeal for caught behind off Onions; on 34 the same bowler was convinced he had him lbw; on 35 he edged Barry McCarthy just out of Keaton Jennings' reach at gully; on 39 he offered a sharp, head-high chance to Michael Richardson at third slip off Paul Coughlin.

Westwood was on 108 when Rushworth took the new ball and immediately beat the outside edge, then the next ball was edged where third slip should have been. Two more edged fours followed.

In fairness to the 5ft 7in opener, he may have been due some luck after a poor start to the season saw him dropped before Durham's visit.

Since his return he had a top score of 45 before yesterday, when he stuck at it in dogged and unflappable fashion. The cover drive off Coughlin which took him to his century off 219 balls may well have been his best shot.

Despite the assistance they extracted from the pitch, Durham took only one wicket in each of the first two sessions before picking up four in the evening.

On a sunny morning nightwatchman Chris Wright was the only batsman to fall as Durham failed to apply sustained pressure Barry McCarthy and Paul Coughlin both swung the ball a long way when they pitched it up, but both struggled for accuracy.

Rushworth had Jonathan Trott in all kinds of trouble after lunch, but after making 48 the ex-England man spooned a catch to deep square leg off McCarthy.

Bell was immediately off the mark with a pulled four, but was given a torrid time by Onions before finding life much easier when Durham turned to Scott Borthwick's leg spin.

Borthwick spent time working with Durham's first day tormentor Jeetan Patel in New Zealand during the winter, but while his one-day bowling has improved there was no hint of him repeating Patel's success here.