Davies does the damage

Mark Davies wreacked utter havoc in Hampshire's batting ranks late on the first day

Pace bowler Mark Davies swung control of Durham's match with Hampshire back in his side's favour with a late and dramatic burst.

Hampshire lost four wickets without adding a run and closed in desperate trouble at 65 for six on a day of tumbling wickets in the LV County Championship at Basingstoke.

At the tiny May's Bounty Ground, 16 wickets fell on the first day of the first match to be staged there in eight years.

Durham captain Dale Benkenstein decided to bat first after winning the toss and must have wished he had not as Durham were shot out for a meagre 156 in the 57th over.

Benkenstein's opposite number, Dmitri Mascarenhas, took full advantage of the seaming conditions to take five for 46 and only Will Smith managed a decent score.

Smith struck 70 with eight boundaries before he was last out as third-placed Durham missed vital batting bonus points in their quest for the Division One title.

They began the day only 10 points behind top-of-the-table Somerset and with a vital match in hand, but they were in trouble from the moment they lost Australian opener Michael Di Venuto in the first over to James Tomlinson.

Mascarenhas dismissed Michael Stoneman soon afterwards and then sent back danger-man Shivnarine Chanderpaul at 26 to a diving catch at third slip by Chris Benham.

Mascarenhas got rid of Phil Mustard and Paul Wiseman while David Balcombe took full advantage of a bowler's wicket to have Benkenstein caught behind.

Durham slumped to 96 for seven when Liam Plunkett was bowled by Mascarenhas to give him figures of 5-26 in 20 overs of sharp accuracy and movement.

Only then did Durham begin to resist with Callum Thorp joining Smith in an important stand of 43 for the eighth wicket.

Will Smith's battling 70 was the highlight in a below-par first-innings total from Durham's batsman

But Hampshire countered this by introducing the spin of Imran Tahir and the Durham resistance quickly crumbled.

Tahir bowled Thorp in his second over with a sharply-turning leg-break and then did the same to Graham Onions at 151.

Smith had resisted for 150 balls but in his exasperation to cut free, he top-edged a pull against Tahir and gave a return catch.

Tahir finished with 3-5 and only four Durham batsmen reached double figures.

Their plight looked even worse as Hampshire got to 48 without loss before they too began a collapse.

Davies first struck when he had Michael Carberry leg-before for 22 and then in his next over Carberry's opening partner James Adams was picked up in the gully by Plunkett.

But at 65 for two there was no hint of the sensational twist that was to come when Hampshire lost four quick wickets, all of them at 65.

Benham was the first to go, caught behind off Davies for 11 but there was a steady procession to follow him back to the clubhouse pavilion.

Davies continued to cause havoc in the Hampshire batting when he had Sean Ervine leg-before trying to turn the ball on the onside and then Michael Lumb gave spinner Wiseman his first wicket with a gentle catch to Di Venuto.

Hampshire's misery was completed when Davies trapped Nic Pothas leg-before without scoring and Hampshire were glad to come off in the 35th over.