SHOAIB Akhtar continued to confound Durham and their supporters yesterday as he took three for none in 11 balls then disappeared from the scene.

After play began at 4pm at Riverside, the Pakistani's electrifying burst hauled Durham back into the game against Yorkshire. But from 40 for four the visitors advanced to 103 for six at the close of the third day, leading by 224.

After bowling five overs, Shoaib briefly left the field because his new boots were causing blisters and by the time he removed his sweater again the light had faded and the umpires consulted.

As there were still 17 of the day's allocation of 40 overs remaining Durham brought on Graeme Bridge instead. But they then recalled Stephen Harmison at the other end and after one short ball the umpires consulted again and off they went.

This was a delicate situation as the nicely-balanced game could not afford to lose any more time, but equally Durham could not afford to give Yorkshire runs as they will not want to chase more than 250.

The fans had no sympathy with such safety-first calculations, and as they heckled the players on their retreat Craig White waved his bat at them as if to say "you try facing Harmison's bouncers in this gloom."

The way White is seeing the ball at the moment, it was surprising that he didn't want to press on and put Yorkshire in an impregnable position.

Four overs were lost before play resumed and the light certainly couldn't be blamed when Simon Guy played on to the third ball from Harmison.

Shoaib returned at the other end wearing different boots and went very close to repeating his earlier gift of four byes with a bouncer over the wicketkeeper's head.

He had a frenzied appeal for lbw against Andy Gray turned down, but White continued to play comfortably as he followed his 135 not out in the first innings with an unbeaten 30.

But after four overs, the light was offered to the batsmen again and off they trudged, leaving everyone to hope there will be no interruptions of what could be an intriguing final day.

A huge storm in the morning prevented a prompt start, then more rain fell just before play was due to begin at 2pm.

In the third over Matthew Wood cut Harmison for two fours then tried to duck beneath what he thought was a bouncer, only for it to shoot through at shin height and pin him lbw.

Left-hander Stephen Fleming, whose liking for the leg side seems to be beyond Durham's powers of observation, then tucked away Shoaib twice to mid-wicket and once to the fine leg boundary in one over.

But then came the Pakistani's three-wicket burst. His extra bounce from good length balls had both Anthony McGrath and Michael Lumb caught at cover by Gary Pratt.

McGrath was trying to turn him to leg and got a leading edge, while Lumb tried to readjust after pushing forward. Yuvraj Singh's miseries continued when he went fourth ball, edging a very quick delivery to Phil Mustard.

Nicky Hatch came on when Shoaib retired for his blister treatment and beat the bat several times. When he did find White's edge with his score on 11 the ball fell just short of Gordon Muchall at second slip.

Fleming had hit all his six fours to the leg side when Vince Wells pitched one on off stump swinging away and had him edging to Mustard for 38. Guy's attempts to consolidate his place as first-choice wicketkeeper were not helped by his dismissal for seven, but there was no further success for Durham.

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