Lunch on the second day: Yorkshire 184 v Durham 161-6 (51 overs)

For an hour and a half here this morning, you would have wagered confidently on Durham reaching lunch well placed to take control as Yorkshire's bowlers struggled to match the effectiveness of their counterparts on day one.

Durham, three down for 59 overnight, had recovered from the loss of Paul Collingwood just before Sunday's close to be 127-4, the only casualty to that point being Ben Harmison and with Dale Benkenstein and Albie Morkel looking in ominously good form.

The Durham skipper, who had led his team to a commanding 295-run win against Yorkshire when these sides met at Chester-le-Street in May, seemed absolutely at ease on a pitch that looked to have flattened out following Sunday's 13 wickets, finding the gaps in the Yorkshire field to pick up half a dozen boundaries.

But just as it appeared he would buck the trend of the match so far and become the first batsman to register a half-century, he tried to cut a short delivery from Steve Patterson that was not really wide enough for the stroke and was caught behind for 40.

If that was the breakthrough Yorkshire needed, it was made doubly valuable three overs later when the South African Morkel, making his Championship debut for Durham after being signed initially for their Twenty20 campaign, departed in similar fashion against Gough for 37.

At lunch, Durham still trail by 23 runs, with Yorkshire, the Championship leaders, right back in the match