CENTURIES from Durham’s Gordon Muchall and Ian Blackwell ensured that Worcestershire were made to toil in the field on the opening day of their LV= County Championship Division One match at New Road.

Having arrived back in Worcester in the early hours of this morning from their Clydesdale Bank 40 match at Middlesex, the last thing the County needed was a long day in the field.

But when Durham skipper Phil Mustard won the toss, he had no hesitation in putting his own side into bat.

However, it wasn’t just the opposition that conspired against Steve Rhodes’ side — even the weather was against them.

Having put the start time back an hour due to the late finish in London last night, the rain meant the opening day of this championship match did not come to a close until 7.53pm.

Yet, Worcestershire did make a good start with Damien Wright and Alan Richardson removing openers Michael Di Venuto and Will Smith in successive overs to reduce the visitors to 24-2 and see the County veterans become the first new ball pair to reach 50 championship wickets between them.

But that just brought Muchall to the crease and, following his mix-up with the dangerous Ben Stokes, who was run out by Richard Jones for five, he went on to complete his maiden century of the season.

However, the Durham number three was given a reprieve shortly after reaching his 50 as he was put down by Vikram Solanki, back in the team after sustaining a mild bout of concussion last week, with Durham 126-4.

The former County skipper put another chance down late on in the day, this time Blackwell the man let off on 77.

The ex-Somerset all-rounder went on to hit a 111-ball century in the final hour of the match before Muchall surpassed his 150.

Durham were 360-4 at stumps with an unbeaten club record fifth-wicket stand of 242 runs putting the visitors in a commanding position.