WORCESTERSHIRE'S batsmen found themselves in Harm's way at New Road as a fiery blast from England paceman Steve Harmison shattered any hopes they had of salvaging something from their game against Durham.

Even though the visiting batsmen piled up a lead of 538, the home side were looking comfortable with Phil Jaques and Vikram Solanki at the crease and the scoreboard reading 131-1 at tea on day three.

However, from the first ball after the interval, the New Road skipper was run out following a mix-up and it went rapidly downhill from there with the County finishing the day on 251-6.

It was a disappointing end for Solanki who reached 10,000 runs for the County when he reached 54.

Jaques, who had been happy to play second fiddle to Solanki, then kicked into gear and spinner Gareth Breese came in for some particularly brutal treatment.

The Aussie ace hit a barrage of 10 fours and five sixes as he raced towards a century, but an error of judgement robbed him of a hundred.

Having already accounted for Stephen Moore with his first ball of the innings, Harmison removed Jaques three runs short of three figures. The opener shouldered arms to a length delivery which nipped in to him and pegged back the off-stump.

The dismissal precipitated a spell of 11 overs, two maidens, 3-24 as the paceman ripped out Ben Smith and Steven Davies cheaply to catches behind the wicket.

It looked as though Graeme Hick and Gareth Batty would weather the storm until the end of play but, in the penultimate over, Graham Onions found the outside edge of the former's bat and Phil Mustard pouched the chance, sending the 40-year-old back to the pavilion for 35.

Earlier in the day Durham had extended their overnight lead from 291-5 to 538 courtesy of an unbeaten 103 from skipper Dale Benkenstein and a lively 53 from Breese.

Batty was the pick of the home attack, claiming 4-123 from 37 overs with his off-breaks to go with figures of 3-36 he returned in the first innings.

The off-spinner was well supported by Kabir Ali, who picked up 3-65 from 19.3 overs.

Worcestershire's feint hopes of salvaging anything from their opening joust of the season rest with not out batsmen Batty and Roger Sillence, but the visitors should be confident of returning to the North East triumphant with Worcestershire still 288 runs away from victory.