Stoneman to the fore as Durham join fight

Durham 208 (Pringle 69*, Borthwick 54, Bresnan 3-40) and 244 for 4 (Stoneman 116*) trail Yorkshire 557 for 6 dec by 105 runs
Scorecard

Romans, Vikings, Normans. Imperialists from across Europe have recognised Durham's importance and sought to make the county bend its knee to them. Over the past 125 years Yorkshire has been beyond serious question the most consistently powerful team in English domestic cricket, so perhaps it is just a little apt when the White Rose's search for yet another outright championship - and this would be their 32nd - takes them to Durham: the old imperialists taking on the side that has won three titles of its own since 2008.

There is no doubt about which team has dominated this contest. Jonny Bairstow and Tim Bresnan's 366-run stand on the first and second days of the game saw to that. That hegemony was maintained on the third morning when Durham were dismissed for 208, thus conceding a huge first-innings lead of 349 and prompting one frivolous rapscallion to enquire whether Yorkshire might invite them to follow-on for a second time should Durham not get to 200 in their second innings.

Such impudence received a proper response from the Durham openers Mark Stoneman and Keaton Jennings, whose careful 116-run opening partnership in 33 overs revealed the home side's determination to bat until deep into Wednesday afternoon in order to save the game. The prize, should Paul Collingwood's men succeed in their objective, is that Durham would remain at the top of the Division One table, albeit with their lead reduced to five points; if Yorkshire win, however, the champions will go 11 points ahead of their current opponents with a game in hand. It would be an ominous statement of power and intent.

By the close of day three the odds were that Yorkshire would return to the top of the table. Jennings, having resisted stoically for 134 minutes in making 41 was caught by Alex Lees at a position between silly point and silly mid-off - silly cover? - off the bowling of legspinner Adil Rashid, who had begun an unbroken 24-over spell from the Lumley End in mid-afternoon. Stoneman was still there, though, undefeated on 116 and the home side's hopes of achieving a remarkable draw surely rest on the opener's increasingly assured technique and good judgement.

Three more of Stoneman's colleagues were dismissed in the afternoon and evening sessions, most notably Collingwood himself, who was caught by Bresnan at slip for a mere 20 when attempting a drive at Rashid. Scott Borthwick offered a passable impression of his first-innings foolishness when he tried to drive an unusually wide ball from Steve Patterson but only nicked a catch to Bairstow but Michael Richardson was tougher to dislodge. Durham's No. 5 batted 54 minutes for his 29 before a good ball from Jack Brooks caught the edge of his bat ten overs from the close.

Durham were 213 for 4 when Richardson trooped off the already shadowed outfield but Gordon Muchall survived until the close and it is upon the Novocastrians Stoneman and Muchall that the home supporters will be placing their hopes on the last day.

Yet the description of dismissals, two in the afternoon session, two in the evening, does little to convey the intensity of the battle between two of the best sides in England when it was properly joined after lunch on the third day. On the first truly very warm afternoon of the season a large crowd gave its full attention to the struggle as Rashid and the Yorkshire seamers probed away for weaknesses in Stoneman and Jennings's techniques. The flag of St George fluttered atop Lumley Castle but there was stillness and little breeze in the Riverside as the openers began the enormous task of saving the game. Inside the ground the atmosphere was steamy and some spectators fidgeted a little in the heat. Yorkshire had bossed matters until now but Durham's batsmen were at least intent on trying to save the game.

There was nothing they could do about the morning's cricket when Ryan Pringle's career-best 63 not out and Borthwick's 54 had been the only pleasant features of a session in which Collingwood's side had lost its last five wickets for 39 runs inside 11 overs, Bresnan and Brooks taking two wickets apiece. There was, though, everything the batsmen could do to repair the situation and scrap for the draw even though their objective must have seemed as distant as the Karakoram.

It is distant still but the challenge will not deter Muchall and Stoneman on the fourth morning. After all, the destiny of yet another County Championship may depend in large part upon the outcome of the struggle.