Durham continued their domination of the LV County Championship as they dismissed Warwickshire for 135 then reached 173 for four in reply at Chester-le-Street.

Callum Thorp earned his second five-wicket haul in successive home games, while Dale Benkenstein took three wickets and scored 59 not out.

Durham are expecting either Steve Harmison or Graham Onions to join them tomorrow after being released from duty at The Oval, but they already look well on the way to their seventh win of the season.

They dominated depleted Warwickshire, despite a duck from Shivnarine Chanderpaul on his first appearance of the season.

He pulled Boyd Rankin straight to backward square leg, but Ian Blackwell then scored 30 runs in his first three overs at the crease and remained unbeaten on 48.

Other than occasional steep bounce there was nothing untoward about the pitch, and it was swing which undermined Warwickshire.

Mark Davies opened up but bowled only two overs before suffering a back spasm, allowing Thorp to get to work earlier than anticipated.

He swung the ball quite sharply back into the three left-handers at the top of a Warwickshire order lacking Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott, earning the first two of his four lbw verdicts as a result.

Benkenstein, who had taken a total of only six wickets in the previous two and a half seasons, came on for the 24th over because of Davies' injury and his gentle swingers earned wickets in his third, fourth and fifth overs.

Warwickshire slumped from 70 for two to 71 for five, starting when makeshift opener Ant Botha chipped a catch to mid-wicket.

Then in the over before lunch Benkenstein shaped the perfect away swinger from leg stump to off to have Tim Ambrose caught behind for a duck and straight after the break Tony Frost edged an attempted cut to Phil Mustard. Benkenstein had figures of three for four at the time.

After removing left-handers Ian Westwood and Jim Troughton, Thorp also pinned 17-year-old Ateeq Javid, who was making his championship debut, and Rikki Clarke, the top scorer with 32.

Last man out was Sreesanth, who slogged a catch to mid-on to give Thorp figures of five for 49.

Sreesanth suffered a buttock strain and bowled only one of the first 28 overs, by which time Durham were in front after Michael Di Venuto hit Rankin's first three balls of the innings for four.

Di Venuto made 40 off 35 balls before he and Mark Stoneman both edged to Ambrose with the total on 43.

Steep bounce from Rankin accounted for Will Smith, but with Benkenstein hitting 10 fours in his 68-ball half-century - his seventh of the season in the championship - Durham were well in command.