Adam Lyth shines for Yorkshire before and after the Scarborough rain

Durham won by seven wickets to trim Yorkshire's lead at the top of the table before pulling away in the final month of the season.

It was a bitter pill for Yorkshire to swallow, consigned to a runners-up place in their 150th anniversary year, but what they would give to finish second to Durham again in 2023, even if that is now in Division Two.

With the runaway leaders 54 points clear going into this game, and with Yorkshire in sixth but just 22 points behind Sussex in the second and final promotion position with a match in hand, this has the feel of another key contest at the finest outground in the cricketing kingdom.

At the end of a heavily rain-affected first day, with 58 overs lost and no play possible between lunch and 5.30pm, it was Yorkshire who emerged the happiest of the sides.

After being sent into bat on a typically competitive Scarborough pitch, they scored 142-2 in 38 overs, a good effort against a strong attack in challenging conditions.

Adam Lyth led the way with an unbeaten 75, his fourth successive score of 50-plus in Championship cricket, and Fin Bean chipped in with 46, the pair adding 113 for the first wicket in impressive style.

It was the lengthy rain delay that effectively did for Bean, with neither his score nor Yorkshire’s having advanced when he fell to the seventh ball after the restart, Matthew Potts, the pick of the bowlers, trapping him leg-before from the Peasholm Park end.

Potts struck again when George Hill met with a similar fate, trying to push forward, the England man prospering from a fuller length.

Earlier, Durham did not help their cause through some inconsistent bowling at times, Potts excepted, as 18 boundaries arrived prior to lunch, nine apiece for Lyth and Bean, with Durham appearing curiously flat given their league position and success at the toss.

Ben Raine, the division’s leading wicket-taker, was comparatively expensive, his equilibrium perhaps disturbed by two unsuccessful lbw appeals in the game’s opening over, Lyth the beneficiary on both occasions.

It was with some disbelief that Raine regarded those verdicts of umpire Surendiran Shanmugam, verdicts delivered with an understanding smile and a sympathetic shake of the head from the official.

The day was bookended by pleasant if watery sunshine, a day which, in that regard, was a bit like a sandwich in which the two slices of bread were the highlight and the filling the disappointment.

In front of a crowd of 2,368, many of whom later gave up hope of a resumption and sought alternative methods of afternoon amusement, Yorkshire began well through their fine opening pair, who are their leading run-scorers in the Championship this year.

Lyth, 35, is very much the veteran of the piece, a man who has been there, done it and got the T-shirt; Bean, 21, the up-and-coming tyro, a player who rightly looks up to his experienced partner.

Together they make for a good combination, despite both being left-handers, with Lyth all Gower-esque fluency, particularly through the covers, and Bean a neat operator all around the ground.

Yorkshire’s batting department is without Dawid Malan here, the England man managing a troublesome Achilles.

Matthew Revis returned in the only change to the side that drew with Sussex last week, young batsmen Will Luxton and James Wharton missing out from the 13-man squad.

Durham included a name familiar to all at North Marine Road, Alex Lees, who gave Yorkshire such stalwart service in the 2010s.

Lees has been in remarkable form lately, scoring four hundreds in his last five Championship innings, including two in the match against Leicestershire at Grace Road; how his former employers will be anxious to interrupt that formidable sequence.

The balance of the day tilted slightly towards the finish, as Yorkshire might have feared that it would, given that the pitch and environs had been spiced up by the elements.

Given the choice, the hosts might have preferred not to have returned for the scheduled final 19 overs from 5.30pm, of which only nine were possible anyway before the advent of bad light, followed by further rain.

The departures of Bean and Hill took the gloss off events, but Lyth remained intact in pursuit of a second successive Championship century, although he did have a stroke of luck when, on 62, he edged Raine perilously close to the outstretched left glove of Ollie Robinson, the wicketkeeper.

Lyth quickly reasserted himself by cutting Potts to the boundary with regal flourish, the shot of a man with power to add and more bread to butter.