Privately, Yorkshire may not have been displeased to hear that Matthew Hoggard had been left out of the England XI to play New Zealand at Lord's, but any thought that this might mean their man joining them by teatime was to receive a reality check: Hoggard will go north only when the Test has started this morning with England's XI all fit.

That was good news, though, for 19-year-old Ben Sanderson, from Sheffield, who will stay on the field a little longer as a result. The player making his debut came on relatively early, as Durham were making steady progress on a good-looking pitch, and immediately bowled a maiden - no little achievement because more vaunted colleagues had been “losing” the ball to the leg side to Durham's left-handers.

In the end, Sanderson suffered some punishment from Michael Di Venuto - but then so did all Yorkshire's bowlers as the Tasmanian went serenely past 100 and was rushing towards a double hundred by the close. Most telling was the fact that 184 runs had come from his bat compared with the 111 gathered by his partners. Only he prevented Durham from looking shaky.

Di Venuto had started the day being beaten by Darren Gough's opening ball - a beauty which left him late and was perilously close to an edge. But, after Gough's first two balls, Yorkshire did not bowl well. There were 20 extras within an hour and 42 by the end of the day.

Di Venuto scored heavily from pulls and cuts, and once he was in full flow there was only one close shave. That was the hard chance he offered, when, on 69, he slashed through the gully and Adam Lyth, stretching to his right, could do no more than parry the ball behind him for two runs.

Mark Stoneham, alone among Durham's batsmen, was defeated by a good ball, Tim Bresnan bringing it back into the batsman, who edged to third slip. Kyle Coetzer struggled for 36 balls to get off the mark and had only two runs when a stiff-footed prod went to the slips. Neil McKenzie was drawn into an unnecessary stroke to a swinging ball from Gough and edged it.

Then followed a burgeoning 98-run stand between Di Venuto and Dale Benkenstein before the latter, on 29, whacked a loose ball straight after tea to short mid-wicket.

Phil Mustard fenced at Anthony McGrath and edged to the wicketkeeper, while Ben Harmison reluctantly submitted to the umpire's caught-behind decision.

Thus, Durham's long-looking tail was exposed but Paul Wiseman, though he continues to look a tail-ender, batted positively in Di Venuto's shadow, ensuring that Durham were at least well on terms by stumps.

Durham: First Innings

M J Di Venuto not out 184
M D Stoneman c Sayers b Bresnan 27
K J Coetzer c McGrath b Bresnan 2
N D McKenzie c Brophy b Gough 5
*D M Benkenstein c Rashid b McGrath 29
P Mustard c Brophy b McGrath 6
B W Harmison c Brophy b Bresnan 21
P J Wiseman not out 21
Extras (lb 22, w 2, nb 18) 42

Total (6 wkts, 96 overs) 337

G Onions, M Davies and S J Harmison to bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-96, 2-118, 3-141, 4-239, 5-247, 6-292.

Bowling: Gough 13-1-56-1; Kruis 23-5-85-0; Sanderson 12-4-53-0; Bresnan 19-4-51-3; Rashid 18-4-42-0; McGrath 11-3-28-2.

Yorkshire: J J Sayers, A Lyth, A McGrath, J A Rudolph, A W Gale, A U Rashid, G L Brophy, T T Bresnan, *D Gough, B W Sanderson, G J Kruis.

Umpires: N L Bainton and M J Harris.