IT was cricket for the connoisseur at Headingley yesterday, and there are plenty of those up North.

Led by the redoubtable Dale Benkenstein, Durham were at their most attritional and boundaries were as rare as Fred Trueman long hops.

But the gritty folk of Yorkshire wouldn’t mind that as long as their own tyros held the upper hand.

As the fascinating contest continued to see-saw, Durham had just about gained the initiative when a third-wicket stand of 109 between Michael Di Venuto and Kyle Coetzer put them 13 ahead.

Then three wickets went down for 30 runs and Yorkshire were back in the driving seat when Ian Blackwell joined Benkenstein.

The burly left-hander rarely scores at much below a run-aball, but he took the lead from his obdurate partner.

Benkenstein had already got off the mark with a sweetly- timed four through midwicket, but after that there were no boundaries for 21 overs.

That was partly because the lush outfield was slower than ever following overnight rain, while Yorkshire also leaned towards defensive fields in an attempt to stop Durham getting away from them.

Blackwell had made 25 off 68 balls before he drove his only four through extra cover shortly after Anthony McGrath handed the new ball to Ajmal Shahzad rather than M a t t h e w Hoggard.

This was beginning to look unwise until S h a h z a d began to beat the bat when the ball was a few overs old and finally found the edge to have Blackwell caught behind.

He had made 32 in the stand of 53 in 25 overs and with 20 overs remaining Hoggard returned and Yorkshire gave it everything.

They were out of luck until Benkenstein’s three-hour vigil ended six overs from the close when he fell lbw to Adil Rashid for 36.

It had taken Rashid until late in the day to pose the problems expected of him from the outset, but Phil Mustard and Liam Plunkett took Durham to 288 for seven at the close, leading by 153.

Plunkett had his stumps rattled by a perfect yorker from Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, but the Pakistani had overstepped for the second time in the over.

If the first ball of the day tends to set the tone it proved an ill omen for Yorkshire.

Hoggard sent it down short and wide of off stump and Di Venuto thumped it to the cover boundary.

The Tasmanian is making a habit of following first innings failures with big scores, with all three of his championship centuries this season coming in the second innings.

This time he got to 84 before he and Coetzer were out in s u c c e s s i v e overs after applying t h e m - s e l v e s w i t h g r e a t t e n a c i t y to wiping out the 135- run first innings deficit.

Yorkshire’s bowling was a mixed bag in the morning, but Hoggard led the marked improvement by running in full of purpose to take two of the three wickets which fell in the afternoon.

The one man out in the morning was n i g h t w a t c h m a n Mark Davies, who fell for six when he was caught behind off Hoggard in the day’s third over.

Coetzer, needing a score to have any chance of retaining his place, left anything he didn’t need to play at and generally looked very solid.

But he fell for 38 to the second ball of Hoggard’s second spell, when he pushed forward and had his off stump knocked back.

In the next over Di Venuto played back and inside-edged Tim Bresnan down into his middle stump.

Hoggard continued to run in full of vigour and had Gordon Muchall lbw on the front foot for 15 to make it 178 for five.

Leg-spinner Rashid was expected to be the dangerman and it was no surprise to see him open up with Hoggard.

But the burden of expectation proved too much for the England aspirant as he bowled too short.

He improved later and turned some balls viciously, particularly one to Di Venuto, who had come down the track and would have been stumped for 56 had the ball not spun so far that it eluded Jonny Bairstow.

Rashid twice looked unlucky not to have Mustard lbw on nine.

For the first the left-hander offered no stroke and was struck on the back leg, then he missed a googly.

But George Sharp was unmoved in both cases and if Mustard can build on his 29 today the match could be poised for a fascinating climax.

Scoreboard

Yorkshire v Durham At Headingley Carnegie

Overnight: Yorkshire 313 (A W Gale 84; S J Harmison 5-60). Durham 178(D M Benkenstein 62) and 26-1.

Durham Second Innings Close

M J Di Venuto b Bresnan ......................84

M Davies c Bairstow b Hoggard ............ 6

K J Coetzer b Hoggard .........................38

G J Muchall lbw b Hoggard ...................15

D M Benkenstein lbw b A U Rashid ......36

I D Blackwell c Bairstow b Shahzad ......32

P Mustard not out .................................29

L E Plunkett not out .............................. 6

Extras (b8 lb11 w1 nb10 pens 0) 30

Total 7 wkts (109 overs).........288

Fall: 1-20 2-39 3-148 4-158 5-178 6-231 7-268

To Bat: M E Claydon, S J Harmison.

Bonus Pts: Yorkshire 6 Durham 3

Bowling: Bresnan 21-1-48-1. Hoggard 20- 6-45-3. A U Rashid 32-5-85-2. Shahzad 18- 3-55-1. Naved-ul-Hasan 17-6-34-0. Rudolph 1-0-2-0.