IF the choice for England's No 3 in the Test series against Pakistan lay between Scott Borthwick and Gary Ballance on yesterday's evidence at Emirates Riverside it would have to be the Yorkshireman.

Although Ballance was not entirely convincing in his season's-best 78, the pressure of possible Test selection seemed to weigh heavily on Borthwick.

After running himself out for two in the first innings he laboured for 22 balls to make four before being bowled by the occasional off spin of Adam Lyth.

He was beaten by Lyth's first ball and when he stayed back to the fifth it shot through low to hit the off stump.

With 36 overs to bat on a pleasant evening, Durham raced out of the blocks and looked capable of wiping out a deficit of 151. But they had to throttle back and closed the second day of the Specsavers County Championship match on 98 for three with Keaton Jennings unbeaten on 46.

With the pitch easing on a sunny day, batsmen were able to prosper as the support bowlers in two depleted attacks struggled to make an impact.

Yorkshire may have had five men on England duty, but two players who have slipped off the national radar carried them to a healthy total of 323.

Ballance continued to emerge from his struggles following a one-day innings of 80 at Scarborough, and Tim Bresnan supervised the addition of 87 damaging runs for the last two wickets in making 63.

Usman Arshad was out of luck for Durham as he recovered from a shaky start to bowl with good economy in a lengthy afternoon spell.

But the only wicket he and Barry McCarthy took between them came when Bresnan was last out, lifting the Irishman to deep mid-wicket.

Then debut boy Ben Coad conceded 21 in three overs when again handed the new ball by Yorkshire, allowing Mark Stoneman to make a flying start.

He got carried away, however, driving a return catch to Bresnan with the total on 46 in the ninth over.

Borthwick almost repeated the folly in taking 12 balls to get off the mark with a straight drive for four off Steve Patterson. It was his only scoring stroke then Jack Burnham remained scoreless for 17 balls before driving Josh Shaw through the covers.

He added only four more runs before stepping across, aiming to leg, and falling lbw to Steve Patterson.

On a roller-coaster morning the Durham bowlers made a poor start as Ballance, on 35 overnight, and Andrew Gale took 31 off the first four overs.

When Ryan Pringle was brought on for his only two overs of the innings he persuaded Gale to clip a catch straight to short mid-wicket. The Yorkshire captain bashed the turf in anger as he departed.

Batting seemed to become trickier around noon. Ballance, who had eight fours in his 61-ball half-century, suddenly found progress more difficult.

Graham Onions, removed after two overs at the start, returned to knock out Jack Leaning's middle stump and angled one across Ballance to have him caught at second slip.

Chris Rushworth completed a five-wicket haul by nipping one back to have Andrew Hodd lbw, but conditions eased again as Bresnan settled in.

Following his unbeaten 169 last season in the record stand of 366 with Jonny Bairstow, Bresnan found two lesser known allies in Shaw and Coad.

Shaw had a top score of 17 in nine previous first-class innings but looked untroubled in contributing 24 to a ninth-wicket stand of 43.

He was unlucky to be out when he tried to pull a Borthwick long hop, which kept low and bowled him.

Despite Bresnan farming the strike, Coad, making his first-class debut, also showed he could handle a bat, remaining unbeaten on 17.