IT must have occurred to Michael Gough that he could have done better than his victims when he gave out two top-order Durham batsmen for ducks as the champions succumbed for 178 at Headingley yesterday.

In the unique situation of two Hartlepool-born umpires standing together – George Sharp is the other – they were required to give out the first three.

There could be no argument with the decisions, but they triggered the slide from 47 without loss, and it seemed the procession might continue when Mitch Claydon had Jacques Rudolph caught behind for five.

But from nine for one, Anthony McGrath and Joe Sayers survived some testing bowling by Steve Harmison for Yorkshire to close on 64 for one.

Only acting captain Dale Benkenstein provided prolonged resistance for Durham, being last out for 62 after his colleagues failed to justify his decision to bat.

With Will Smith absent because of an illness in the family, it could not have been an easy decision for Benkenstein when he won the toss on a pitch containing some moisture.

But for the first hour the openers made untroubled progress against bowlers who found little swing in chilly conditions and no assistance from what initially seemed a placid pitch.

Once the breakthrough came, courtesy of a run out, the least experienced of Yorkshire’s four seamers, Ajmal Shahzad, began to pose a threat.

Bowling with good pace and accuracy, he took three of the next six wickets. After his early clear-cut decisions, Gough, standing for the first time against his ex-teammates, later surprised Liam Plunkett by adjudging him lbw and this time there was an element of doubt.

But he also turned down a very confident appeal for caught behind off Shahzad when Benkenstein was on 51.

The captaincy would have made little difference to a man who rarely fails to respond to a crisis and after battling for 76 balls to reach 23, Benkenstein suddenly took 16 off an over from Rana Navedul- Hasan.

Three of the four fours in his 102-ball 50 came off successive balls, the first clipped though square leg with superb timing and the others flashed wide of gully.

They were followed by an edge which all but carried to Sayers at second slip, but that was the closest Benkenstein came to giving a chance.

Having turned his back on his first-class career at the end of the 2003 season, Gough has served his apprenticeship and was promoted to the firstclass list this year, aged 29.

Sharp, 30 years older, rarely did his native county any favours in their early years but more recently has appeared less worried about accusations of bias.

He was smartly into position yesterday to give the runout decision at the non-striker’s end which sparked the collapse.

Mark Stoneman had been untroubled in reaching 22, pulling two successive balls from Shahzad for four. But Michael Di Venuto had taken a couple of risky singles and Stoneman followed suit when he drove firmly just to Mc- Grath’s right at mid-off.

The Yorkshire captain pounced, turned and threw down the stumps, with Sharp in no doubt that Stoneman was short of his ground.

While the international trio of Matthew Hoggard, Tim Bresnan and Rana had made no impression, Shahzad suddenly looked the biggest danger.

He had Kyle Coetzer well caught by wicketkeeper Jonathan Bairstow then greeted Muchall with a short ball before pitching the next one up. In the first sign of uneven bounce, the ball skidded on to pin Muchall lbw.

Shahzad had taken two for 17 in six overs when he was replaced by Adil Rashid, who continued Durham’s decline by striking in his second over.

Di Venuto had made 29 when he pushed forward and the ball turned between bat and pad to bowl him.

After pushing Monte Panesar close for Test selection, Rashid continued to impress and hurried one on to bowl Ian Blackwell, who was on the back foot.

Phil Mustard edged Rana low to first slip, and when Plunkett followed, Durham were 128 for seven. Claydon survived a barrage of shortpitched stuff from the wicketless Bresnan to contribute a valuable 20 to a stand of 43 before steep bounce from Hoggard had him caught behind.

Despite Benkenstein’s best efforts to farm the strike, the last two wickets added only seven runs, with Harmison’s struggles with the bat continuing as he fell lbw to Rashid.

Yorkshire were 29 for one after 12 overs when Harmison made way for Plunkett and suddenly the runs flowed.

After 11 came off Plunkett’s first over, Claydon was hit for two fours by Sayers after conceding only 12 runs in his first six overs.

Batting looked increasingly comfortable in the evening sunshine and the second wicket pair had put on 55 by the close.

Scoreboard

Yorkshire v Durham At Headingley Carnegie

Durham First Innings

M J Di Venuto b A U Rashid ................29

M D Stoneman run out .......................22

K J Coetzer c Bairstow b Shahzad ........ 0

G J Muchall lbw b Shahzad .................. 0

D M Benkenstein c Bairstow b Hoggard 62

I D Blackwell b A U Rashid ..................12

P Mustard c Rudolph b Naved-ul-Hasan 7

L E Plunkett lbw b Shahzad .................. 3

M E Claydon c Bairstow b Hoggard ......20

S J Harmison lbw b A U Rashid ........... 0

M Davies not out ................................ 0

Extras (b5 lb4 nb14 pens 0) ........23

Total (70.2 overs).................178

Fall: 1-47 2-53 3-55 4-62 5-82 6-101 7-128 8-171 9-176

Bowling: Hoggard 17.2-6-36-2. Bresnan 13-3-24-0. Shahzad 12-3-39-3. Naved-ul- Hasan 10-1-38-1. A U Rashid 18-4-32-3.

Yorkshire First Innings Close

J A Rudolph c Mustard b Claydon ........ 5

J J Sayers not out ...............................34

A McGrath not out .............................13

Extras (lb5 w1 nb6 pens 0)..........12

Total 1 wkt (23 overs)................64

Fall: 1-9

To Bat: A Lyth, A W Gale, J M Bairstow, T T Bresnan, A U Rashid, Naved-ul-Hasan, A Shahzad, M J Hoggard.

Bonus Pts: Yorkshire 3 Durham 0

Bowling: S J Harmison 6-2-17-0. Claydon 7-2-20-1. Plunkett 6-4-15-0. Davies 2-1-6-0.

Blackwell 2-1-1-0.