Brilliant Blackwell goes on rampage; Langer's criticisms answered in emphatic fashion.

Byline: Luke Edwards 

WHOEVER decided Ian Blackwell was no longer a vital member of the squad at Somerset will hopefully have spent the night tearing their hair out in frustration as he demolished his former county's batting yesterday. Disgruntled and disillusioned after nine years in Taunton, Blackwell was effectively forced out of the club by its demanding and highly opinionated Australian captain Justin Langer, who failed to recognise that top quality cricketers can still come in all shapes and sizes.

After all, who cares about a few extra pounds around the waistline or how many shuttle runs you can do when you are capable of producing match winning performances with both bat and ball? Durham pounced immediately after hearing he was going to leave and have been rewarded with 35 Championship wickets and more than 700 runs at number six from the portly all-rounder.

There will be plenty of candidates at the end of another successful campaign which will almost certainly bring back-toback Championship titles, but Blackwell will be one of the favourites to pick up the player of the year award at Durham's annual back slapping shindig on September 30.

In 49 balls yesterday afternoon Blackwell - who was only tossed the ball because Stephen Harmison needed to briefly return to the dressing room - picked up five wickets and conceded just seven runs as Lancashire collapsed from 105-2 at lunch to 174 all out before tea.

Unfortunately, for those looking for any sign of remorse, Langer has been thin on top for some time so it is debatable he could have torn any hair out last night. There will always be personality clashes in a dressing room, although this is one which has been to the detriment of the team he leads.

Indeed, Langer - who has already embarrassed himself this season with the leaked dossier which labelled England's cricketers weak just before Australia's defeat in the Ashes - may have spent his time nursing more than just sore pride after he was twice doubled over by deliveries from Graham Onions before the England star bowled him for 12.

Onions hopefully urged him to put that in his next dossier to the Australian coaching staff, particularly as he had also managed to claim the other prize wicket of Marcus Trescothick before lunch, superbly caught by Will Smith at gully for 31.

Trescothick has been in brilliant form this season and when Callum Thorp dropped him first ball of the day, Durham may have lived to regret it. Shivnarine Chanderpaul also spilt a simple chance off Langer, but that also did not prove to be too costly as Blackwell and Liam Plunkett got to work on the middle order. Plunkett has operated in the shadow of Onions and Harmison all season and has hardly bowled in the last two Championship games against Lancashire and Warwickshire. But he remains an exciting talent and, bowling 21 overs straight, he got three wickets, two of which - Craig Kieswetter and Peter Trego - were brilliantly taken by Michael Di Venuto in the slips.

Nevertheless, it is Blackwell who went on the rampage, James Hildreth going first to a sharp take from Thorp before Zander De Bruyn and Ben Phillips went in successive deliveries and Alfonso Thomas and Chris Willoughby failed to hang around at the end of the innings.

Durham's reply was a typically exhilarating one, with Michael Di Venuto looking to score freely and stylishly before he fell to Chris Willoughby for 22. When Smith went next ball Durham may have collapsed in similar style to the visitors, but in Shivnarine Chanderpaul they have the perfect middle order batsman to take the sting out of things. Taking his lead from the classy West Indian, who left anything which did not need to be defended or fell into his natural scoring zone, Kyle Coetzer also prospered through caution.

Their partnership was worth 80 runs from 29 overs before Coetzer was bowled by Phillips for 30 from the final ball of the day's penultimate over.

SCOREBOARD Durham v Somerset At: Riverside. Somerset won the toss.

Somerset First Innings M E Trescothick c W R Smith b Onions.............. 31 A V Suppiah c Mustard b Plunkett ..................... 53 J L Langer b Onions ......................................... 12 J C Hildreth c Thorp b Blackwell....................... 27 Z de Bruyn lbw b Blackwell .............................. 16 C Kieswetter c Di Venuto b Plunkett .................... 0 P D Trego c Di Venuto b Plunkett ........................ 4 O A C Banks not out ........................................ 16 B J Phillips lbw b Blackwell................................ 0 A C Thomas c Di Venuto b Blackwell................... 0 C M Willoughby b Blackwell................................ 0 Extras (lb8 w3 nb4).................................... 15 Total (59.1 overs) ..................................... 174 Fall: 1-89 2-89 3-127 4-147 5-148 6-152 7-162 8-162 9-166 Bowling: Onions 17 2 49 2; S J Harmison 8 3 24 0; Thorp 5 0 21 0; Plunkett 21 6 65 3; Blackwell 8.1 5 7 5. Durham First Innings Close M J Di Venuto c Trescothick b Willoughby.......... 22 K J Coetzer b Phillips ....................................... 30 W R Smith c Kieswetter b Willoughby.................. 0 S Chanderpaul not out ..................................... 49 D M Benkenstein not out ................................... 1 Extras (b4 lb3 w1)........................................8 Total (3 wkts, 36 overs) ............................ 110 Fall: 1-24 2-24 3-104 To Bat: I D Blackwell, P Mustard, L E Plunkett, C D Thorp, S J Harmison, G Onions.

Bonus Points: Durham 3 Somerset 0 Bowling: Willoughby 8 2 27 2; Thomas 10 2 27 0; Phillips 10 2 14 1; Trego 6 2 20 0; Banks 2 0 15 0.

CAPTION(S):

JUMPING FOR JOY Ian Blackwell (No 37) celebrates with team-mate Phil Mustard after taking the wicket of Somerset's Ben Phillips. OUT Durham trio Callum Thorp, Phil Mustard and Kyle Coetzer successfully appeal for the dismissal of Zander de Bruyn.