Onions picks off the Yorkshire line up

GRAHAM Onions showed his determination not to slip out of the England reckoning as he overcame a slightly wayward start to put Durham in command against Yorkshire at Chester-le-Street.

He removed five of the top six, having run out the other, as Yorkshire failed miserably to build on the groundwork put in by Joe Root.

Once the opener departed for 49 most of the rest batted as though they expected the death ball to come along at any moment, when the first 50 minutes had shown there was little to fear from the pitch.

With Ben Stokes taking three of the last four wickets, Yorkshire were all out for 177, 60 behind, and there was insufficient time for Durham to start their second innings.

The ball which took out Root's middle stump may have kept a shade low, otherwise there was no great assistance for the bowlers and four batsmen got out carelessly.

Adil Rashid was not among them but he might have been as he was dropped at mid-wicket on five and continued to bat in kamikaze fashion.

Yorkshire declined from 96 for three to 136 for eight before Liam Plunkett showed what was possible with an unbeaten 25.

Although he has rarely played, Onions has commanded a place in the England squad for the last two years, but he is under threat from superior batsmen such as Chris Woakes and Tim Bresnan.

Onions has not quite been at his best so far this season and when play began at 4.10 yesterday his in-swinger was tending to slide down the leg side.

The overnight pair of fellow Ashes hopefuls, Root and Jonny Bairstow, were in little trouble for the first 11 overs as both were beaten only once.

Root continued to show his pedigree after resuming on 30, dominating the early scoring before playing over the top of the ball which bowled him.

Bairstow fell for a sucker punch, skying an attempted pull to be caught by Mark Stoneman, positioned for the shot at deep square leg.

Onions had taken wickets in three successive overs when the left-handed Gary Ballance pushed tentatively at a ball he should have left alone and edged to Phil Mustard.

Having taken two of the three wickets to fall on Wednesday evening, Onions completed his 16th first-class five-wicket haul. He had five for

49 at that point but, with the help of an edged four, Rashid took 12 off the tenth over of his stamina-sapping spell.

Rashid went very close to offering another chance to mid-wicket but his luck ran out when he was adjudged lbw for 25 in Stokes' second over.

When Chris Rushworth returned, Tim Bresnan emulated Bairstow in earning a black mark in England selector James Whitaker's notebook.

He flashed at a short ball and was caught at head height by Paul Collingwood at first slip.

Ryan Sidebottom helped Plunkett put on 25 before hooking Stokes to Keaton Jennings at long leg and last man Steve Patterson was cleaned out by a fast yorker from Stokes, who finished with three for 26.

SCORECARD

Durham v Yorkshire
At Emirates Durham ICG.
Overnight: Durham 237 (P Mustard 70; T T
Bresnan 4-41). Yorkshire 57-3.
Yorkshire First Innings
J E Root b Onions ................................49
J M Bairstow c Stoneman b Onions .....16
G S Ballance c Mustard b Onions ......... 5
A U Rashid lbw b Stokes ......................25
T T Bresnan c Collingwood b R’hworth 10
L E Plunkett not out ..............................25
R J Sidebottom c Jennings b Stokes .... 7
S A Patterson b Stokes ........................ 7
Extras (lb6 nb2 ) ........................8
Total (55.3 overs) ...................177
Fall: 1-0 2-13 3-57 4-96 5-97 6-107 7-132
8-136 9-161
Bowling: Onions 19-3-63-5. Rushworth 15-
4-49-1. Thorp 12-3-33-0. Stokes 9.3-2-26-
3.