The Durham seamer Chris Rushworth fell agonisingly short of becoming the third bowler to take a 10-wicket innings haul in the County Championship.

Rushworth has been the leader of Durham’s attack this season in the injury-enforced absence of Graham Onions and lived up to his billing with nine for 52 in 12 overs against Northamptonshire at Chester-le-Street.

His spell, either side of the lunch interval, restricted woeful Northamptonshire, who are already guaranteed to finish bottom of Division One, to a limp 83 all out in response to Durham’s 392 on day three. It gave him 15 wickets on the day, the best match figures by a Durham bowler as they won by an innings and 219 runs.

The 28-year-old started the rot in the ninth over when the Northamptonshire captain, James Middlebrook, was caught in the slips and then ripped out the next seven batsmen to give himself hope of emulating Ottis Gibson and Richard Johnson.

The England international Ben Stokes snared Maurice Chambers to deny his team-mate, who responded by taking the final wicket of Azharullah to leave the visitors without hope after only a day and a half of action.

The Middlesex seamer Johnson made the headlines when he first took 10 wickets in an innings in 1994 against Derbyshire, while more recently, Rushworth’s former Durham team-mate Gibson emulated the feat against Hampshire in July 2007.

The record is becoming increasingly rare though there have been 79 instances of a bowler taking all 10 scalps in first-class cricket.