Hampshire are a much changed county in all respects since they last played a Championship match at May's Bounty eight years ago, curiously enough against Durham. Dimitri Mascerenhas, the only survivor on either side from a game in which Durham were twice bowled out for under 100, enjoyed 23 overs unchanged yesterday but on a relentlessly cloudy day he was not the only bowler to exploit a seaming pitch and the feel of the intimate, tree-lined, undulating ground, so different from the open spaces of the Rose Bowl or the Riverside.

The wiry, underrated Mark Davies hit back with even greater vim for Durham in the evening, his incisive spell giving the Championship favourites a clear edge in a game both sides need to win. One of them will, for sure, but Tony Pigott, the pitch liaison officer, passed the pitch on the grounds of its even bounce.

Davies's five for 24 underlined the quality of Will Smith's 70 in the first two sessions. Solid in every sense, he held the innings together from the second over until he was last out, top edging a pull off Imran Tahir, whose swift demolition of the tail underlined the value of a decent leg-spinner.

Tahir now has 28 wickets at 18 runs each in his five games for Hampshire, but it is Davies who can expect representative honours, belatedly, at the age of 27. His 214 career wickets have been taken at only 21 runs each and he deals in give wicket analyses like this with far greater regularity than rivals who have caught the eyes of selectors because they appear to be quicker or more hostile. Whether he would prosper on true Test pitches is perhaps questionable but he can expect an England Lions invitation if more performances like this follow.

Durham took four wickets for no runs at the end of the day, three of them after the umpires had stopped play for bad light. Yet Hampshire had started well enough, Michael Carberry and Jimmy Adams reaching 48 before Carberry's lbw, playing no shot to a ball that nipped back, started the deluge. By contrast Durham had been 48 for five before Smith and some robust blows by Callum Thorp started what looks like being a decisive recovery.

Scoreboard

Durham: First Innings
M J Di Venuto c Ervine b Tomlinson 0
M D Stoneman c Lumb b Mascarenhas 2
W R Smith c and b Tahir 70
S Chanderpaul c Benham b Mascarenhas 6
*D M Benkenstein c Pothas b Balcombe 11
P Mustard lbw b Mascarenhas 0
P J Wiseman c and b Mascarenhas 22
L E Plunkett b Mascarenhas 3
C D Thorp b Tahir 28
G Onions b Tahir 6
M Davies not out 2
Extras (lb 6) 6
Total (56.1 overs) 156

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-2, 3-26, 4-47, 5-48, 6-86, 7-96, 8-139, 9-151.

Bowling: Tomlinson 18-6-48-1; Mascarenhas 23-10-46-5; Balcombe 11-2-51-1; Tahir 4.1-1-5-3.

Hampshire: First Innings
M A Carberry lbw b Davies 22
J H K Adams c Plunkett b Davies 26
M J Lumb c Di Venuto b Wiseman 5
C C Benham c Mustard b Davies 11
S M Ervine lbw b Davies 0
N Pothas lbw b Davies 0
L A Dawson not out 0
D J Balcombe not out 0
Extras (lb 1) 1
Total (6 wkts, 34.3 overs) 65

*A D Mascarenhas, Imran Tahir and J A Tomlinson to bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-48, 2-49, 3-65, 4-65, 5-65, 6-65.

Bowling: Onions 7-3-16-0; Thorp 7-2-12-0; Davies 10.3-4-24-5; Plunkett 7-3-12-0; Wiseman 3-3-0-1.

Umpires: R J Bailey and S A Garratt.

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