Durham made to toil as Rudolph hits 228 not out

Even on the occasion of Brian Lara’s 501 not out Warwickshire batted for 30 overs fewer than Yorkshire’s marathon effort, in which Jacques Rudolph made an unbeaten 228.

Yorkshires twofold tactics were to grind Durham down and hope that the dry pitch would wear and allow their spinners to bowl them to victory.

The initial ploy bore fruit when Kyle Coetzer edged a drive to slip and the second reaped richer rewards when Adil Rashid struck twice in two balls in his second over.

He clean bowled both Will Smith and nightwatchman Mark Davies, and Durham are now hugely dependent on overnight pair Michael Di Venuto and Dale Benkenstein.

Rudolph had been batting for a shade over seven and a half hours when he passed two career-best marks. His previous highest for Yorkshire was 220 against Warwickshire at Scarborough in 2007 and his best in any cricket was 222 on his Test debut for South Africa against Bangladesh at Chittagong in 2003.

Probably his greatest moment of concern yesterday came when a fierce drive by Anthony McGrath, who was on 97, glanced off his helmet.

Rudolph is a supreme accumulator and this innings was nothing like the swashbuckling 339 made by Darren Lehmann when Yorkshire totalled 677 for seven against Durham in the final match of 2006 at Headingley. Those runs came from 149 overs.

The decision to award extra points for a win this season and reduce the bonus points cut-off to 110 overs was designed to encourage more positive cricket.

But the changes had clearly not persuaded Yorkshire to attack the champions with flailing bats on a ground which has produced only two positive results in the last two years.

Yorkshire’s former Durham coach, Martyn Moxon, said: “At the moment the pitch is quite slow, so if bowlers bowl in good areas with defensive fields it’s not easy to score at four an over.

“I’m all in favour of positive cricket. But when Durham ran away with the title last season, most of us were more concerned about avoiding relegation and to pick up 12 points for a draw was very valuable.”

When Yorkshire resumed on 304 for two yesterday they had ten overs to score 46 runs for the fourth of the five batting points available. But Rudolph was content to watch the ball go by as 14 runs came off the first nine overs.

He then hit Ian Blackwell over mid-on and behind square leg for two fours, but it seemed both sides were intent on denying their opponents bonus points.

Yorkshire succeeded admirably as Durham failed to gain a single bowling point.

They achieved the maximum of three in every match last season, while they dropped only one in 2007 and the four they missed in 2008 were due to the weather.

Even on the occasion of Lehmann’s 339 they picked up one bonus point, as they did when Mark Butcher and Ian Ward put on 359 for Surrey’s first wicket at The Oval in 2000.

After earning only one bowling point in the opening match against Essex, Durham have dropped as many in three matches as in the previous three years.

When they did finally take a wicket, in the 24th over of the day, it came from a run-out and resulted in the fielder, Benkenstein, limping off with a knee injury. He was back on the field before the innings ended, but it meant yet more work for physio Nigel Kent.

Rashid must have been salivating when fellow leg-spinner Scott Borthwick came on for the 22nd over of the day and immediately spun two balls past McGrath’s bat.

Both batsmen were on 97 together, but Rudolph was first to his century, off 208 balls, reaching the mark with a straight drive for his 15th four off Davies after Chris Rushworth had bowled for the first hour.

McGrath went down the pitch to Blackwell and although the lofted straight drive wasn’t middled, it carried for four to take him to his hundred off 240 balls. It was his 30th first-class century and he surely hasn’t scored a slower one.

He was run out for 105 when he drove Borthwick to mid-off and set off for the run, with Rudolph rightly declining to respond as Benkenstein swooped.

Yorkshire skipper Andrew Gale contributed 41 to a fourth-wicket stand of 111 in 33 overs before driving at a wide ball from Ben Stokes and slicing a catch to Liam Plunkett at point.

Jonny Bairstow fell for nine when he shaped to cut Borthwick and was bowled and the same bowler had Rashid caught at short extra cover for a sprightly 43.

These were mere crumbs of comfort and there were a few tastier morsels offered up by Tino Best on his championship debut for Yorkshire.

The West Indian paceman’s four overs cost 24 runs, with Di Venuto the main beneficiary as he remained 30 not out.

Scoreboard

Yorkshire v Durham At Headingley Carnegie

Yorkshire Won Toss

Overnight: Yorkshire 304-2 (A Lyth 85, A Mc- Grath 73 no, J A Rudolph 68no, J J Sayers 63).

Yorkshire First Innings

A McGrath run out ................105

J A Rudolph not out ......................228

A W Gale c Plunkett b Stokes ................41

J M Bairstow b Borthwick .................... 9

A U Rashid c Sub b Borthwick ..............43

D J Wainwright not out .......................14

Extras (lb9 w3 nb10 pens 0)........22

Total 6 wkts dec (176 overs) 610

Fall: 1-146 2-173 3-379 4-490 5-503 6- 586

Score at 130 overs: 3-405

Bonus Pts: Yorkshire 5 Durham 1

Bowling: Davies 28-10-60-0. Rushworth 27- 7-86-0. Plunkett 23-3-110-0. Stokes 9-0-52- 1. Benkenstein 12-6-21-0. Blackwell 43-15- 105-2. Borthwick 27-0-122-2. K J Coetzer 3-0-18-0. W R Smith 4-0-27-0.

Durham First Innings Close

M J Di Venuto not out .........................30

K J Coetzer c Rudolph b Patterson ....... 8

W R Smith b A U Rashid ...................... 8

M Davies b A U Rashid ....................... 0

D M Benkenstein not out .................... 4

Extras (lb4 pens 0)....................... 4

Total 3 wkts (18 overs)..............54

Fall: 1-17 2-49 3-49

To Bat: I D Blackwell, B A Stokes, P Mustard, L E Plunkett, S G Borthwick, C Rushworth.

Bonus Pts: Yorkshire 5 Durham 1

Bowling: Best 5-0-26-0. Hannon-Dalby 5-2- 10-0. Patterson 5-1-8-1. A U Rashid 3-1-6-2.