It was honours even after the first day of the LV= County Championship clash between Durham and Yorkshire at the Emirates Durham ICG.
After winning the toss, Durham were reduced to 112-7 despite knocks of 42 from Will Smith and 40 from Dale Benkenstein. The tail, however, rallied the innings and thanks to Phil Mustard (70) the hosts were able to post a score of 237.
Yorkshire ended the day 57-3 after Graham Onions struck twice with the ball and once with a run out to leave the game evenly poised going into Day Two.
Paul Collingwood won the toss and elected to bat, but his side got off to a bad start when Keaton Jennings was dismissed by Tim Bresnan first ball.
He was soon followed back to the pavilion by his opening partner Mark Stoneman as he edged a Ryan Sidebottom delivery to Liam Plunkett at slip leaving the home side 8-2.
However, Will Smith (42) and Dale Benkenstein (40) steadied the ship adding 64 runs before Lunch. The pair were going well after the break until Smith hooked a Bresnan short ball straight to Sidebottom at fine leg where he took an routine catch.
This wicket caused a collapse as Benkenstein, Ben Stokes, Paul Collingwood and Scott Borthwick all fell cheaply to leave Durham reeling at 112-7.
Mustard and Callum Thorp launched the counterattack, with the number nine showing some good stroke-play to stay with the Durham wicketkeeper as they moved the home side’s score above the 150 mark.
Thorp’s resistance ended on 21 when he was bowled by leg-spinner Adil Rashid with the score on 153-8.
Onions, however, picked up where Thorp left off and took the attack to the Yorkshire bowlers as he blasted 27 off 28 balls, which included five boundaries, before he was run out in a mix-up with Mustard thanks to a direct hit from Steve Patterson.
With only one wicket left, Mustard began to up the ante and blasted 12 off one over from Rashid taking him to 46*. He brought his 50 and the 200 for Durham in style as he cracked a massive six off Patterson, to get his side’s first point of the game.
The wicket-keeper continued his fine hitting until he was bowled by Rashid, finishing Durham’s innings on a respectable 237.
Onions made early inroads into the Yorkshire batting lineup as he bowled Adam Lyth with just his fourth delivery. It got better for Durham and Onions when he ran out Phil Jaques for a duck following a mix-up with England batsman Joe Root.
However, like in Durham’s innings the visitors rallied with Root and skipper Andrew Gale to take them over the 50 run mark, but Gale was dismissed right before the close by Onions who trapped him lbw for 25 to leave Yorkshire at 57-3, 180 runs behind Durham.
Durham will be looking to make early inroads into the Yorkshire line up on day two and take early wickets and put Durham on top.