STEVE Harmison took two wickets as Durham routed Yorkshire's top order yesterday, but probably slipped below five-wicket hero Graham Onions in the England pecking order.
While Matthew Hoggard, who was en route from Lord's, remains first reserve among England's seamers, it was Onions who would have impressed watching selector James Whitaker at Riverside.
His three wickets were the least he deserved in a 12-over opening spell during which several balls missed the stumps by a gnat's whisker.
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After reducing the Tykes to 50 for six, Onions later returned to send Tim Bresnan's middle stump flying after he had contributed 46 to a stand of 85 with Adil Rashid.
Onions then trimmed Darren Gough's off bail to complete his first five-wicket haul since the home match against Yorkshire just under a year ago.
He could make little impression, however, on Rashid, who confirmed his all-round prowess through a sound defence and a pleasing array of shots.
Rashid was last out for 70, edging a swipe at Harmison with the total on 194, but despite a lead of 212 Durham declined to enforce the follow-on. In four overs' batting they reached 16 without loss with Ben Harmison opening in place of Michael Di Venuto, who suffered a nasty hand injury while fielding at slip.
Durham will test him this morning before deciding if and when he will bat, but coach Geoff Cook said: "We hope to bat them out of the game.
"The leading bowlers had quite a heavy workload, so we thought it best to give them a rest. If we had sent Yorkshire back in and they scored 350 it could have been an awkward chase for us on the last day."
Onions' sustained accuracy was in contrast to Steve Harmison's mixed bag, during which the wicket-taking balls carried the valuable element of surprise.
With the help of the brilliant run-out of Anthony McGrath by substitute Will Gidman, they had Yorkshire reeling before a double change allowed Rashid and Bresnan to prosper.
While there is a risk for Durham in playing Ben Harmison as the fourth seamer in order to add depth to the batting, it is equally a gamble for Yorkshire to have wicketkeeper Gerard Brophy batting as high as six. His limitations were cruelly exposed by Onions.
Brophy was fifth out when he edged to Phil Mustard, and with the pressure growing on Jacques Rudolph the South African fenced at the first ball of the next over from Steve Harmison and gave the wicketkeeper another catch.
Doubtless Durham would have liked to have gone for the jugular at that point, but after bowling 19 overs unchanged after lunch the new-ball pair needed a break.
Mark Davies was out of luck with a couple of good shouts for lbw, while the pressure visibly lifted at the other end.
Durham had to wait until the fifth over of Onions' return to break the seventh-wicket stand, but they would be well satisfied with their work on a day when they did well to achieve maximum batting points after Di Venuto fell without addition to his 184.
He was pinned lbw by Bresnan's second ball of the day, but Paul Wiseman, dropped on two, took his overnight 21 to 60 before he was last out, having received good support from Onions and Davies.
Wiseman rode his luck well. He played and missed a lot, particularly against Bresnan, and became the second highest scorer when a miscued hook off the same bowler lobbed gently into space to take him to 30.
Durham had added 35 when Gough, after a luckless seven-over spell, made way for Deon Kruis and Onions immediately slapped a catch to backward point.
Steve Harmison recorded his third successive duck when he attempted a short-arm pull off Kruis and the ball lobbed to gully.
It was the sort of shot which would have looked indistinguished had it been attempted by Esh Winning's No 11 and suggested that Harmison would rather get to work with the ball.
But with 16 runs still to be gathered for the fifth batting point, Davies knuckled down and Wiseman reached his maiden championship 50 when he pushed a single into the covers off Kruis.
That took the total to 394 and off the first ball of the next over Wiseman's well-controlled lofted straight drive off Rashid earned his seventh four.
He turned the next ball to fine leg for the two runs which brought up the 400, but finally surrendered when he aimed to play Rashid to mid-wicket and edged to slip.
With Yorkshire emulating Durham in fielding two left-handed openers, their innings began with five balls down the leg side from Steve Harmison.
He continued to stray there and occasionally over-compensated, but in the fifth over he produced a good one, pitching on off stump and leaving Adam Lyth to take the edge.
Three overs later Neil McKenzie took his second catch at first slip off Onions as Sayers' disappointments since the middle of last season continued.
Gidman was on the field for only a couple of overs in place of Davies, but it was long enough to make his mark by swooping from mid-wicket to hit the non-striker's stumps and see off McGrath, who had called for the single.
Andrew Gale was next to go, edging Onions to Di Venuto at second slip, and the same bowler twice went agonisingly close to bowling Rudolph.
The double strike with the total on 50 appeared to have Yorkshire on the rack, but the talented Rashid hit 11 fours in earning a few more plus marks alongside Onions in Whitaker's notebook.
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