Shivnarine Chanderpaul lived up to his reputation as one of the most dogged batsman in the world when he batted for just over eight and a half hours for an unbeaten 201 and his sixth double century in first-class cricket as Durham took a stranglehold on the match.

The Guyanan, with his unorthodox front-on stance combines unwavering concentration with the ability to stick around, but faced with a much improved attack by the home team, he was more “Chandercrawl” for most of the day as he inched his way towards the milestone.

He scored half his runs in boundaries but only nine came in his second hundred, and when he finally opened his shoulders to lift Jack Shantry over long-on to bring up his double century the achievement was met more with relief than celebration by the crowd.

Durham have set their sights on rounding off their championship-winning season in style and barring a remarkable and resolute batting display by Worcestershire in their second innings they should succeed.

The champions also registered their third-highest first-class total with relegated Worcestershire conceding their fourth-highest total ever.

Dale Benkenstein and Chanderpaul featured in a fourth-wicket stand of 226 with Benkenstein, 91 over night, once again demonstrating his class with a fifth championship century. After he was caught at the wicket, Ian Blackwell played across the line and Phil Mustard tried one extravagant drive too many.

Liam Plunkett is another Durham batsman to have enjoyed an excellent championship with the bat and the former England bowler enjoyed a 103 seventh-wicket partnership with Chanderpaul before chipping Daryl Mitchell to deep mid-on where Dave Wheeldon took a fine low catch.

Dismissed only twice this season and boasting an incredible average of 236, Chanderpaul earned high praise from Benkenstein who said: “Nothing fazes him and he just loves batting so he was the ideal guy to have in the middle."

He added:”It wasn’t easy because we’ve already won the championship but we still wanted to remain competitive. Worcester have had a tough season and in fairness to them they played with a lot of pride and guts and got through a massive amount of overs.”

It is going to be a long final day for Worcestershire but after a promising start in their second innings with Stephen Moore and Mitchell making the most of the attacking fields to find the boundaries, Blackwell made the breakthrough in the penultimate over as Moore pushed forward.

Worcestershire: First Innings 356 (G M Andrew 77, D K H Mitchell 67; L E Plunkett 4 for 104)
Second Innings
D K H Mitchell not out 22
S C Moore lbw b Blackwell 16
*V S Solanki not out 0
Extras (lb 1, w 2) 3
Total (1 wkt, 12 overs) 41
Fall of wicket: 1-41.
Bowling: Davies 4-1-14-0; Claydon 3-0-9-0; Plunkett 3-1-14-0; Blackwell 2-0-3-1.

Durham: First Innings
M J Di Venuto b Ali 113
K J Coetzer c Jones b Andrew 44
*W R Smith c Davies b Shantry 28
S Chanderpaul not out 201
D M Benkenstein c Davies b Andrew 109
I D Blackwell lbw b Jones 9
†P Mustard c Davies b Jones 25
L E Plunkett c Wheeldon b Mitchell 52
M E Claydon c Davies b Whelan 10
M Davies not out 16
Extras (b 3, lb 13, w 3, nb 8) 27
Total (8 wkts dec, 172.1 overs) 634
S J Harmison did not bat.
Fall of wickets: 1-124, 2-185, 3-207, 4-433, 5-444, 6-480, 7-583, 8-600.
Bowling: Andrew 41-11-121-2; Jones 28-4-129-2; Shantry 39.1-9-102-1; Whelan 28-2-94-1; Ali 21-1-104-1; Mitchell 11-1-52-1; Solanki 4-0-16-0.
Umpires: N L Bainton and J F Steele.