Yorkshire CCC too good for Ben Stokes and Durham

Spectators put down their copies of The Yorkshire Post - grudgingly, temporarily… “we can read Waters later”.

The Durham total stood at 15-2 after seven overs.

From Yorkshire’s point of view it had proved to be a good toss to lose, George Hill having Alex Lees caught behind and Ben Coad bowling Emilio Gay as he hacked across the line.

It was 11.25 on a cool and cloudy morning, a stiff breeze buffeting the trees around the ground.

Stokes - the man many in the 4,859 crowd had come to watch - had a difficult job on his hands. His side were in trouble, the Yorkshire bowlers rampant.

Fifty minutes later he was back in the pavilion, the victim - not for the first time in his career - of Kuldeep Yadav, the Indian wrist-spinner, whom he reverse-swept to Hill at backward point.

It was a poor and unnecessary shot by Stokes, who managed just 12 runs from 39 balls with one boundary - a lofted straight drive off Ben Cliff - and was given a torrid working over by Coad especially, who kept him quiet with three successive maidens from the City End during a remarkable opening spell of 7-5-4-1.

With opener Graham Clark also back in the pavilion after getting a leading edge off Cliff to James Wharton at mid-off, Durham were 42-4 in the 21st over, the scoring rate a tribute to the home team’s accuracy.

A little under two hours later, Durham were all-out for 165 with 11 balls of their innings unused. Will Rhodes, the former Yorkshire all-rounder, top-scored with 31, Ben Cliff was the most successful bowler with 4-38, and the match was all but done and dusted at its halfway stage.

Yorkshire, who went on to win by seven wickets with nine overs left, Wharton (68) and Sam Whiteman (52) sealing a fourth successive victory with an unbroken stand of 97, were all over Stokes and co on this last day of July, one occasionally visited by afternoon sunshine.

After Stokes’s departure, the wickets had continued to fall at regular intervals… Rhodes skied back a return catch to Dom Bess, who then had Ollie Robinson picking out Cliff at long-on. Yadav claimed his second scalp when he pinned Colin Ackermann lbw; Kasey Aldridge holed out to Whiteman on the mid-wicket boundary off Cliff, who then had George Drissell caught by Adam Lyth at mid-on.

The innings ended when Shafiqullah Ghafari lofted Cliff to Hill at long-off, last man Luke Robinson spoiling Coad’s figures a touch - but only a touch - with a couple of boundaries in an unbeaten cameo.

Durham needed early wickets to stand any chance of getting back in the game - and they got two inside the first 14 balls.

Stokes struck with his fourth delivery from the City End when Will Luxton, having square-driven his previous one to the boundary, edged a lifter to Drissell at first slip, then Lyth was trapped leg-before by Luke Robinson.

Will Bennison punched Stokes for four through the offside, getting nicely on top of the bounce, as Yorkshire rebuilt from 5-2.

Wharton’s first three scoring strokes were boundaries off Robinson; then he whipped Stokes for two more past mid-off and mid-wicket, quickly racing to 20.

Stokes should have had another wicket in his seventh over but Aldridge dropped Bennison on 23, low to his left at slip, with the total on 50, seemingly slow to react to the chance.

In the next over, Wharton had a life on 22 when Rhodes was unable to cling on in his follow through - also low to his left - as another half-chance went begging.

By the time Durham finally claimed the third Yorkshire wicket, Bennison bowled by spinner Ghafari for a useful 36, the hosts were almost halfway to their target, any lingering nerves eased.

Whiteman built on the foundation in unfussy fashion, the Australian using all of his skill and experience, working the ball deftly into gaps and occasionally unfurling a sweet expansive drive.

At the other end, Wharton, a batsman of stature in more ways than one, ticked along nicely in the manner required, batting with the air of someone gradually working up an appetite for their evening meal.

The 25-year-old reached his first fifty in this year’s tournament from 97 balls with six fours, Whiteman following suit from 52 deliveries with five fours.

At the end, Stokes generously signed dozens of autographs in front of the pavilion, a class act in defeat.