Champions battle back as 20 wickets fall

Yorkshire 162 (Rushworth 4-37, Onions 3-41) and 10 for 0 lead Durham 156 (Sidebottom 4-44, Patterson 3-16) by 16 runs
Scorecard

The first morning of this match recalled the innocence of childhood. The wave-ruffled sea in Scarborough's North Bay was sapphire blue and folk taking their constitutionals on Blenheim Terrace were gently buffeted by the warm air. People in Peasholm Park wished each other a good morning and you sensed they meant it. On such days the Famous Five sailed boats into adventure yet always returned in time for supper and sleep. This is the 129th Scarborough Festival yet it can have known few mornings more glorious than the one which greeted Yorkshire's match against Durham.

And the unspoilt prelapsarian mood did indeed presage a Fall but only an almighty clatter of wickets at North Marine Road where 5300 spectators saw 20 professional cricketers dismissed on a pitch which, while testing, hardly justified the rapid turnover of batsmen seemingly bemused by a surface which offered pace, plenty of bounce and some lateral movement but little more.

The conditions at North Marine Road were well used by two of the best bowling attacks in Division Once yet once again there was a useful distinction to be made between batsmen who were dismissed by their opponents and those who were complicit in their own departures. It may be useful to say at the outset that the umpires Jeremy Lloyds and Nick Cook said at the close that they had seen nothing in the wicket to cause them to take further action. The pitch inspectors will not be arriving at Scarborough this weekend. This is particularly fortunate given that there is not a bed to be had in the town.

By the close of play Yorkshire may be the happier side, given that they had battled back in the manner of champions after being dismissed for 162 in 43 overs. Their trials had begun as early as the fourth over when left-arm seamer Jamie Harrison brought one back in the air to have Andrew Hodd leg before for 9. Next over Alex Lees's loose defensive shot to a ball from Chris Rushworth caused him to play the ball on to his stumps and what became something of a procession had begun.

It was the bounce as much as anything which caused the batsmen's grief. Both Jack Leaning and Gary Ballance were caught in the slips fencing at lifting balls which they did not need to play while Gale himself edged a ball which the excellent Rushworth pushed across him. Throughout a morning session which Yorkshire ended on 94 for 7 one felt that a lot more discretion would have worked wonders. Yet no one showed that level of judgement, not even Glenn Maxwell who, having driven the ball well in making 36, simply fell for the bouncer bowled by Graham Onions and gave a catch to Michael Richardson.

Indeed, we had to wait until the last-wicket partnership for two batsmen to exhibit a proper level of judgement and common sense. That came when Tim Bresnan was joined by Ryan Sidebottom when the score was 95 for 9 and the calm of the morning seemed very distant indeed. Bresnan drove and cut with power; Sidebottom simply treated balls on their varying merits and did not play a shot when he did not need to do so. By the time Bresnan was yorked by Harrison for 47 - he deserved a fifty - Yorkshire had a total which their own skilled seamers could defend. Just as importantly, some of the initiative had been wrested from Durham's bowlers despite the excellent figures of both Rushworth and Onions.

In the second half of this truly bizarre day - Durham's first innings lasted just two balls longer than Yorkshire's - Sidebottom and his colleagues revealed one reason why the County Championship will, in all probability, be returning to Headingley at some point in September: their ability to respond to adversity is second to none.

Yet for a few overs it seemed that Mark Stoneman and Graham Clark had weathered the new-ball attack. Then suddenly, three wickets fell in seven balls and Durham's innings was never to be on an even keel again. Clark carelessly drove Bresnan straight to Gary Ballance at point; five balls later Stoneman hooked Patterson straight to Bresnan at long leg; then Gordon Muchall was leg before to his first ball from the excellent Patterson.

Any recovery enjoyed by Durham thereafter was brief. In the evening session Michael Richardson inside-edged a ball from Patterson to Hodd. Jack Burnham, an 18-year-old who was making his first-class debut, was then bowled by the ball of the day from Liam Plunkett. It moved away and trimmed the off stump. That left Durham on 65 for 5.

Indeed, that the visitors eventually conceded a deficit of no more than six is explained by another innings filled with common sense and well-judged aggression. It was played by Ryan Pringle who hit five fours and a six off Adil Rashid in his 54-ball 40, his 77-minute innings being played while his colleagues were making little or nothing of Sidebottom, who took four wickets in a fine spell from the Trafalgar Square End. It remained hectic stuff to the very end as Sidebottom celebrated every wicket as if it was his first and thus explained why he takes so many. Pringle was ninth out, well caught by Rashid off Sidebottom at deep square-leg. There was time for Hodd and Lees to play five overs in Yorkshire's second innings; curiously, it was the calmest cricket of the day.