Mark Davies wows in an understated way

Steve Harmison's still busy with England, but with Liam Plunkett having been banished to county cricket, Durham have got quite a seam attack.

There's Plunkett himself who'll be watched with interest. There's also Graham Onions, the cricketing cognoscenti's young pace bowler of choice for this season. He's the man whose name crops up whenever anyone's asked 'what other young bowler is doing well in county cricket at the moment?'

The third member of Durham's pace bowling unit is never mentioned in this way. It's Mark Davies and he's currently outbowling both Plunkett and Onions. As usual.

In Durham's current county championship match, Mark Davies took 2-32 in Hampshire's first innings. This is classic Mark Davies. Not many wickets, but very few runs. In the second innings he took 4-48. A better wicket haul, but crucially one wicket short of being newsworthy.

Against Lancashire last week, Davies took 4-62 and 3-34. You can see how cheaply he gets his wickets, can't you? Graham Onions went wicketless in that match, but he'll get a five-for at some point and hit the headlines.