RIVERSIDE

(Day three of four)

Durham 406 and 194-6d (D.Benkenstein 86 no, M. Di Venuto 45 no; M.Hoggard 2-27). Yorkshire 194 & 122 (T.Bresnan 32 no; G. Onions 3-23, S.Harmison 3-39). Durham won by 295 runs.

Lunch

Durham, 212 ahead after the first innings, and choosing not to enforce the follow-on, probably only needed about 150 in their second innings to feel safe – but how they struggled to get near it. Wickets tumbled on the third morning, with Yorkshire doubtless encouraged by the fact that Matthew Hoggard, released by England, had now joined the attack. However it was Tim Bresnan, again swinging the ball impressively, who quickly snatched the first two wickets.

Ben Harmison survived a nightmare first over from Bresnan but then fell leg-before to that bowler. Harmison had opened in place of Michael Di Venuto, who had injured a finger in the field the previous day, and the continued absence of the Australian became more significant as wickets fell.

Kyle Coetzer played a couple of brave strokes, hinting that he might break free from his run of low scores, only to fall, again, edging into the slips. Neil McKenzie’s sequence has been just as bad, and the scores of this South African Test player now read 3,18,5,4, after he edge – for the second time in the match – a ball he didn’t need to play at.

Phil Mustard is another in a poor sequence, and he too fell quickly. Only Dale Benkenstein, as so often, oozed authority and calm as he moved smoothly to 44 by lunch, belatedly accompanied by Di Venuto, with Durham 331 ahead.

Tea

The runs that Durham are lacking from their home-grown batsmen are certainly being supplied by their two leading imports, Benkenstein and Di Venuto. It was these two who continued to stabilize Durham after lunch. As so often in the past, Benkenstein gave the impression of looking to stamp his authority in response to a Durham wobble.

He has seldom looked more confident, and with Di Venuto’s bruised finger appearing not to trouble him, the two were scoring with blissful freedom when, with the stand worth 93, Benkenstein declared. Yorkshire were set 418, and with plenty of time to get them.

But the timing gave Durham a good half hour of bowling before tea, and immediately Graham Onions was among the wickets. Bowling fast and full, angling the ball skilfully, he trapped Adam Lyth on the crease, while Anthony McGrath was perilously close to the same leg-before fate in that over.

McGrath, however did soon fall leg-before to Onions, and when the bowler produced a beauty to get a Jacques Rudolph edge, Yorkshire’s first three batsman had made ducks. Steve Harmison eventually joined in, thanks to a nervy cut by Andrew Gale that found only Mustard’s gloves.

Close

As in the first innings, the resting of Onions and the introduction of the support bowlers gave Yorkshire some respite. The bowling of Ben Harmison seemed to prove not threat, until an innocuous-looking shorter ball to Joe Sayers, who had hung around for 81 balls for 22, was played a little uppishly towards the slips and Kyle Coetzer reacted sharply to dive to his right and forward. Anil Rashid and Gerard Brophy also fell to balls that seemed to pose no great threat.

Once again Tim Bresnan hung around and hit the ball hard. His top score of 32 may not have been cause for a big celebration, but he will surely have been pleased with his all-round match, embracing penetrative swing bowling as well as his runs. But the inevitability of Yorkshire’s defeat was so clear that Durham’s support bowlers – and, finally, the returning Steve Harmison – were almost bound to share around the final wickets. Sadly for Harmison, his final spell, which was his best, was not seen by the England selector James Whittaker, who had departed.

Two overs of the extra half-hour had been taken when Matthew Hoggard, who had arrived from Lord’s for what turned out to be only one day’s play, was taken at slip – by coincidence by a Durham substitute fielder, Gareth Breese.