Durham v Yorkshire at Chester-le-Street May 14-16, 2008
Durham won by 295 runs
Durham 406 and 205-6 dec. Yorkshire 194 and 122
Durham 22 points, Yorkshire 3 points
After Durham had won the toss and chosen to bat the first day was dominated by a superb 184 from Michael Di Venuto. The only other batsman to reach 50 was New Zealander, Paul Wiseman who made 60. Considering how hard runs were to come by for other batsmen Di Venuto’s innings which included 25 fours and a six was truly impressive.
Graham Onions and Stephen Harmison had Yorkshire in deep trouble at 50-6 before Adil Rashid with 70 and Tim Bresnan with 46 fought back. Between them they hit 19 boundaries. Graham Onions finished with 5-75 as Yorkshire were all out over 200 in arrears.
Dale Benkenstein chose not to enforce the follow on and Durham were grateful for his undefeated 86 as the other batsmen struggled in the second innings. Di Venuto came in when the sixth wicket fell due to a finger injury and was not out on 45 when Benkenstein declared. Yorkshire’s target was 418.
It was soon clear that this was unlikely to be reached. Graham Onions dismissed Adam Lyth, Anthony McGrath and Jacques Rudolph all without scoring as Yorkshire slumped to 10-3. They never recovered and after claiming the additional half hour Durham secured an emphatic victory and their first of the season in the Championship. Stephen Harmison took three wickets and there were two each for his brother, Ben, and for Mark Davies.
Matthew Hoggard returned from England duty during the match and replaced Ben Sanderson. In the final innings he had his thumb broken when batting against his fellow England pace bowler, Stephen Harmison.
The margin of runs victory remains Durham’s biggest against Yorkshire.