Yorkshire enjoy brief sunny spell but hand over reins

On a day such as yesterday you could see what he meant; some 5,500 flocked to the seaside on a picture-perfect late summer’s day.

Many of them, of course, come year after year, their routine so familiar as to be second nature.

Yet the reason for this big crowd – around double the norm – was the significance of the cricket rather than cricketing custom.

A meeting between the leaders, Yorkshire, and second-placed Durham, who trailed the hosts by 25.5 points with one game in hand, explained the swarms of spectators at North Marine Road.

With just one month of the season remaining, the match has all the makings of a Championship decider, a game that neither can afford to lose.

Support for Yorkshire was predominant, of course, with every wicket loudly cheered and every play-and-miss applauded.

Unfortunately for the crowd, there were not too many of those on a day when Durham took full advantage of a featherbed pitch, posting 406-6 after winning the toss, Ben Stokes (127), Mark Stoneman (122) and Paul Collingwood (74no) leading the way.

The day nevertheless began amid the strains of cheering Yorkshire supporters.

Ryan Sidebottom, who could probably extract life from the Dead Sea, somehow reduced Durham to 5-2 in perfect batting conditions when he struck twice in three balls in the day’s third over.

Bowling from the Peasholm Park end, Sidebottom won lbw verdicts against Keaton Jennings and Scott Borthwick, his 598th and 599th first-class wickets.

After leaving out Alex Lees in preference to Phil Jaques, with Yorkshire suddenly blessed with an embarrassment of batting riches now that Jonny Bairstow and Gary Ballance are back available, Yorkshire could not have wished for a better start.

However, the true nature of conditions soon became apparent, and Stoneman and Will Smith established a platform with a third-wicket stand of 62.

Stoneman, who found his range with a couple of caressed cover-driven fours off Steve Patterson, looked in splendid touch, while Smith was just starting to get going when he fell to a moment of individual magic.

That magic was found neither in the delivery nor the shot, which saw Smith drive at a wide ball from Jack Brooks, but in a quite outstanding diving catch by Kane Williamson, who flew far to his right at third slip to snatch the ball one-handed.

Having dropped two catches on his Yorkshire debut against Nottinghamshire last week, Williamson would have felt a good deal better after that champagne moment, one which was worth the admission money alone.

Stoneman went to fifty from 70 balls, 36 of them in boundaries, and Durham lunched on 117-3 – an even-stevens sort of session in which both sides could be reasonably satisfied.

Stoneman, 73 at the break, required only 47 balls to advance from 50 to 100 and looked set to comfortably exceed his career-best 128.

However, he fell narrowly short when fourth out at 195, undone by a wide delivery from Sidebottom which he tried to flash through the offside but flicked to the wicketkeeper – wicket No 600 for the evergreen bowler.

Stokes and Paul Collingwood ensured a solid foundation did not fall away as they took Durham to 265-4 at tea, Stokes the aggressor as he flailed three successive fours off Adil Rashid.

The powerful left-hander almost perished in the first over after the interval when he edged Brooks to second slip, where Adam Lyth dropped a hard, high chance.

Lyth grassed another tough one later in the session when Phil Mustard, on four, edged a delivery from Sidebottom, the good news surrounding Lyth coming off the field, where it was announced that he has signed a contract extension until December 2015.

Stokes reached his hundred with a classical, old-fashioned straight-driven four off Brooks – and then celebrated with a very modern punch of the air.

A six off Rashid quickly followed into the Popular Bank but, when Stokes attempted to repeat the feat, he slog-swept high in the air, Bairstow barely having to move to take the towering catch.

Stokes and Collingwood added 120 in 28 overs and then Collingwood and Mustard 88 in 20 before Mustard fell in the penultimate over, lbw reverse-sweeping the off-spin of Williamson.

chris.waters@ypn.co.uk