Durham Are Wobbling But They Haven't Fallen...Yet

The table is so congested, the players and coaching staff will probably say they can still make a late charge for the title, but they will be looking nervously over their shoulders at the relegation trap door at the same time.

They have games in hand, but they have not played well enough this season on a consistent basis to be cocky about their place in the top division.

Injuries did cause a hell of a lot of disruption at the start of the summer. Steve Harmison, Graham Onions, Mark Davies, Liam Plunkett and Callum Thorp were all sidelined at one stage, but they have pretty much had a full strength attack (with the exception of Onions and Davies) for weeks now.

In fact, the bowling hasn't really been the worry, it's the batting. Neither Michael Di Venuto or Dale Benkenstein have scored the runs they have in previous years and, as we know, when those two both fail, Durham's entire batting tends to fail.

They should have signed an overseas batsman and the stubborn decision not to will probably end up costing them that third successive crown.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who played for Lancashire and almost won the game for the visitors at the Riverside last week, would have loved to return, but Durham didn't offer him anything, placing their faith in homegrown players instead.

That was an admirable policy - although I suspect it had more to do with the budget than anything else. However, when Will Smith was deposed as captain at the start of June, it left a big hole at number three, arguably the team's most important batting position, and an overseas player must have been a temptation to fill it.

Ben Stokes has done well in his first season at number six, but Gordon Muchall has not scored the runs needed at first wicket down and there has been a general fragility to the batting all summer.

Durham were dreadful in the Twenty20 competition, despite appearing to have a team tailor made for the competition, and they have been up and down in the one day stuff as well.

It would be premature to write this team off as a four day force. The reigning champions still have too many good players to do that, but if they don't pull their fingers out soon - starting against Hampshire - the wobble could well turn into a very painful tumble.