AN increasingly docile Headingley pitch turned a potential thriller into a tame draw yesterday, but not before Durham had turned a likely defeat into potential victory.

It wasn’t difficult to tell which team had won four successive championship games and which had gone 18 without a victory.

The latter were set a target of 287 in a minimum of 55 overs and at 68 for four in the 30th they were far from safe, but for the second time in the match Andrew Gale proved their saviour. Young Jonny Bairstow survived with him for 20 overs before bad light intervened with Yorkshire on 98 for four.

Yorkshire began the final day as marginal favourites, with Durham 135 ahead with three wickets standing. But for the third time in four days when they had to bowl at 11am the Tykes performed as though they had just rolled out of bed.

Even on the first day, when they had the opportunity to bowl on a damp pitch, it needed a run out to end an opening stand of 47 and spark them into life.

On Sunday they improved as the day progressed and were very impressive in the evening, when they were unlucky not to take more wickets.

Yesterday they needed to strike early but rarely looked like parting Phil Mustard and Liam Plunkett, who beat by four the record eighth-wicket stand for Durham of 143, which the same pair set on the same ground last year.

One of the features of the day was how much better Ian Blackwell bowled than Adil Rashid, who, as Martyn Moxon feared, is probably suffering from over-exposure to the England set-up.

Another blow for the luckless Moxon, who has presided over only six wins in 39 matches, was that Ajmal Shahzad had strained a hamstring for the second time this season.

Shahzad had had a very good game and generally outshone the international trio who constitute the rest of the Yorkshire seam attack.

The greatest concern must be the overseas man, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, who only really threatened on Sunday evening, when he bowled Plunkett with one of several no-balls. The Pakistani emerged from the match with one wicket.

Another worry for Moxon is that Yorkshire have led after the first innings in each of their last six matches then let it slip.

They became increasingly demoralised yesterday morning as Durham set out to rub their noses deep into the Headingley dust.

Plunkett and Mustard added 107 in the morning session, with the total reaching 350 courtesy of a dreadful ball from Tim Bresnan. It was short and so wide down the leg side that it gave wicketkeeper Bairstow no chance of reaching it.

Shortly afterwards Bresnan conceded two runs by misfielding at mid-wicket and as Mustard had just been dropped at slip by Jacques Rudolph it was clear that Yorkshire’s heads were dropping.

Mustard was very restrained as he and Plunkett settled in against the bowling of Matthew Hoggard and Rashid. But the wicketkeeper later reverse swept Rashid for two fours then lifted a slower ball from Rana just short of the mid-wicket rope to reach 50 off 101 balls.

He was on 55 when he was dropped off Rana and went on to make 85 before both batsmen surrendered in pursuit of quick runs just before the declaration came on 421 for nine.

Mustard gave Bresnan a return catch and Plunkett, who played immaculately, drove Rana Naved to deep mid-off after making 65.

The Yorkshire openers appeared in little trouble on the flat pitch until Plunkett replaced Steve Harmison and had Joe Sayers caught at midwicket by Mark Stoneman.

Plunkett then had Anthony McGrath lbw on the front foot for a duck, ending any remote prospect of Yorkshire chasing the target.

Blackwell, on as early as the seventh over, took the other two wickets and was unlucky not to have more. He had key man Rudolph caught at slip for 39 just before tea by Plunkett, and left-hander Adam Lyth taken by Gordon Muchall, one of three short legs.

Harmison and Plunkett both had a second burst and Mark Davies came on with 15 overs left. But given his lack of bowling he was never likely to extract any life from the pitch and Durham probably wished they had a second spinner.

Blackwell finished with two for 21 in 23 overs, but 19-yearold Bairstow, son of David, showed he’s a chip off the combative block, even if he lacks his dad’s physical bulk.

Durham took seven points from the match and will go to Trent Bridge on Wednesday 25 points clear of Nottinghamshire, who have two games in hand.

Somerset are now second, 16 points behind Durham on the same number of games.

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 288-7 (M J Di Venuto 84).

Durham Second Innings

P Mustard c & b Bresnan .....................85

L E Plunkett c Hoggard b N-ul-Hasan ...65

M E Claydon not out ............................. 1

Extras (b20 lb14 w1 nb12) ..........47

Total 9 wkts dec (147.4 overs) 421

Fall: 1-20 2-39 3-148 4-158 5-178 6-231 7- 268 8-415 9-421

Did Not Bat: S J Harmison.

Bowling: Bresnan 29-1-69-2. Hoggard 29- 9-67-3. A U Rashid 43-7-124-2. Shahzad 18- 3-55-1. Naved-ul-Hasan 25.4-9-64-1. Rudolph 3-0-8-0.

Yorkshire Second Innings

J A Rudolph c Plunkett b Blackwell .......39

J J Sayers c Stoneman b Plunkett ........14

A McGrath lbw b Plunkett ...................... 0

A Lyth c Muchall b Blackwell ................. 2v A W Gale not out ...................................24

J M Bairstow not out ............................. 9

Extras (b8 lb2 pens 0) .................10

Total 4 wkts (50.3 overs)..............98

Fall: 1-47 2-51 3-63 4-68

Total Bonus Pts: Yorkshire 6 Durham 3

Bowling: S J Harmison 11-3-22-0. Claydon 3-0-17-0. Blackwell 21-10-23-2. Plunkett 11- 4-22-2. Davies 3.3-2-4-0. Benkenstein 1-1- 0-0.

Yorkshire (10pts) drew with Durham (7pts)