Ball dominated bat for large parts of an action packed day of cricket between Lancashire and leaders Durham at Liverpool.

Twenty wickets fell on the opening day of the clash between Division One’s top two teams, on a surface ECB pitch liaison officer Peter Walker described as “as good a pitch as I’ve ever seen2.

After winning the toss and electing to bowl, Durham new ball bowler Callum Thorp took six wickets for 20 runs from 12.2 overs to skittle the hosts for 84 inside 34 overs, their lowest score since 51 against Glamorgan at Aigburth in 1997.

But just when it looked like the visitors had gained the upper hand, back came Lancashire courtesy of Kyle Hogg, Sajid Mahmood and Luke Procter (3-39).

Hogg removed openers Will Smith and Michael Di Venuto within three overs of Durham’s reply.

And then Mahmood removed Paul Collingwood, Ian Blackwell and Phil Mustard to reduce the score to 61-6 in the 20th.

But the visitors recovered and did get the upper hand after all thanks to a brilliant 83 not out from Dale Benkenstein, who lifted his side to 186.

Bad light then meant Lancashire only faced three balls of their second innings. They closed on four without loss and resume today 98 runs behind.