Rothesay County Championship Division One, Banks Homes Riverside (day four)
Yorkshire 307 & 277-6: Bairstow 86*, Lyth 53; Ackermann 2-49, Raine 2-69
Durham 427: Lees 172, Gay 152; White 3-76
Durham (15 pts) draw with Yorkshire (13 pts)
Captain Jonny Bairstow posted an unbeaten 86 as Yorkshire thwarted a depleted Durham attack to secure a County Championship draw at the Riverside.
Bairstow shared half-century partnerships for the fifth and sixth wickets with all-rounders George Hill and Matthew Revis during the morning session as Yorkshire, who started the day on 132-4 in their second innings, leading by 12, reached 232-5 at lunch.
With a lead of 112, Yorkshire had taken the sting out of the situation and continued to build their lead before rain arrived just before 3:00pm with the score on 277-6
Durham will rue the loss of injured seamers Paul Coughlin and Brendan Doggett but claimed 15 points and ended a two-match losing start.
Bairstow’s 167-ball effort included 11 fours and represented his second 50 of the summer.
Coughlin’s abdominal problem was sustained on day one and seems more serious. Australian overseas Doggett, however, went over on his ankle and was not on the field purely as a precaution.
It meant captain Alex Lees, who scored a first-innings 172, was left with only four bowling options on day four – tireless new-ball seamers Ben Raine and Matthew Potts, medium pacer Will Rhodes and the part-time off-spin of Colin Ackermann.
And Durham had to use their 40-year-old batting coach Will Gidman as a substitute fielder.
Bairstow started the, which began with the floodlights on, with only two runs to his name, but he was quickly out of the blocks with a couple of boundaries off Potts in the day’s opening over.
The situation meant that Bairstow, who played the last of his 100 Tests for England to date in March last year, was never going to be wholly dominant. But he was far from becalmed against both the old ball and then the new.
He shared a fifth-wicket stand of 59 with Hill, who contributed 24 before pulling Ackermann to mid-wicket.
Bairstow was strong on the pull against Potts and then Raine, either side of reaching his 50 off 91 balls, and drove another eye-catching boundary almost arrow straight off Rhodes.
Revis moved into the 20s with a couple of back-foot boundaries off Raine just before lunch with some light rain falling.
After lunch, Potts had a five-over spell which Yorkshire negated. But by then, it felt as if the sting had been taken out of the situation with the threat of rain increasing.
Potts bowled 50 overs in this match – 20 in the first innings and 30 in the second – for three wickets and has sent down 139 in three matches so far this season. Raine, meanwhile, has bowled 141 overs – the most in Division One.
Ackermann had Revis caught behind off the inside-edge on 40, leaving Yorkshire 272-6 – a lead of 152.
That ended a 96-run partnership with Bairstow, who was denied the chance to post a 32nd career first-class century by the weather, but his number one objective of steering his side to safety – and 13 points – had been achieved.
Umpires Martin Saggers and Surendiran Shanmugam called a close at 4:00pm.
ECB Reporters’ Network supported by Rothesay
