A beautiful summer’s day and big crowd greeted players at Scarborough as second placed Durham met current table leaders Yorkshire for the match of the Championships so far.
Durham won the toss and elected to bat and got off to a shaky start with Yorkshire paceman Ryan Sidebottom getting his side off to a good start when he claimed the wickets of Keaton Jennings and Scott Borthwick in the third over.
Mark Stoneman and Will Smith then steadied for Durham with both showcasing some nice shot selection, combining for a 62-run stand before Smith was the victim of a superb catch by Williamson which dismissed the number four after he contributed 20.
Just after Smith’s dismissal, Stoneman raised his bat after making a well-earned half century with the opener demonstrating an array of shots in his 50.
Stoneman and the new man in Ben Stokes had the Durham tally looking healthy at 117-3 at lunch.
The pair carried on adding to the total after lunch and it wasn’t long until Mark Stoneman brought up his seventh first class hundred. His 100 came off just 117 balls with the opener showing some fine shots to hit 19 boundaries in his hundred.
Moments after Stoneman raised his bat for his own individual milestone the pair met half way at the crease as they reached a 100-run stand.
Just prior to the Durham tally ticking over to 200, opener Mark Stoneman was dismissed after he edged behind to Bairstow to give Sidebottom his third wicket and also give the Yorkshire paceman his 600th First Class wicket.
Stoneman’s superb knock came off 122 balls and included 21 fours and one six.
Stokes carried on at the crease and he soon became the second Durham batsmen to pass 50, his half century coming off 91 balls and includes 6 fours.
He and skipper Paul Collingwood then got Durham through to tea, combining to add 70 together to have Durham 265-4.
It was just after tea when another Durham batsmen raised their bat when Stokes brought up his century in style with his 14th boundarygot his 8th First Class century, his first of the season, bringing his century up in style with his 14th boundary and his hundred coming up off just 136 balls.
Not long after yet another milestone for the day was reached for Durham as Stokes and Collingwood brought up the 100 run-partnership.
The pair were finding the gaps and frustrating the Yorkshire attack until the 121-run stand was broken when Stokes looked to go long again but this time, mistiming to hit straight up to find the hands of Bairstow with Rashid taking the wicket.
It was a sensational innings from Stokes who compiled 127 off 170 balls as well as hit 17 fours and one six in an entertaining knock.
As the afternoon session progressed Durham continued to tick over the milestones as Collingwood became the hird batsmen to surpass 50 with his half century coming off 106 balls, hitting 8 fours in the process.
Durham picked up their fourth batting point in the last hour as Collingwood and Mustard took Durham past 350.
The pair then claimed maxiumum batting points as they struck the total past 400 however next ball Mustard attempted a reverse sweep and was trapped lbw for 42.
Richardson came to the crease for the final over of the day and batted it out with Collingwood who finished unbeaten on 74no as Durham finished the day on 406-6