Cricket: Scott plays it safe

Yorkshire 405 and 105-5

Durham 357

A DAY of funereally slow batting has built, albeit laboriously, a platform for an intriguing last day in a match which could swing either way.

A Yorkshire side now adept at snatching defeat from victory succeeded in frittering away all their early advantages when they allowed Durham to escape from 38 for four and then surrendered four of their own wickets.

It was as if winning the Durham Light Infantry Cup - a four-foot silver trophy perched proudly on the boundary yesterday - meant nothing. The trophy, claimed to be the largest in the game, is contested annually by these two and if it were not for the Ashes-style arrangement that keeps it in the North- east, the suspicion would have grown that neither side fancied carting it home.

Durham, in probably their last match here, continued their recovery steadily. Largely due to Chris Scott, they ended just 48 runs behind Yorkshire's first-innings total when the follow-on had been so likely on the second day. It was Scott's second century in a month, after a 13-year career without one.

With Darren Gough and Peter Hartley injured and Craig White nursing sore shins that could give the England selectors a diplomatic excuse for leaving him out of the second Test, Yorkshire's attack lacked bite, although Mark Robinson was warned for short-pitched bowling at David Graveney.

Graveney was eventually bowled by Richard Stemp, who also trapped Simon Brown before Robinson had Alan Walker caught behind to end the innings with Scott unbeaten on a career-best 107.

The odds against a Yorkshire victory lengthened further when a fierce opening from Anderson Cummins removed their first three batsmen. When Brown had White lbw to reduce Yorkshire to 44 for four, the advantage was lurching in Durham's favour.

Bradley Harker, one of the several Yorkshire reserves pressed into service for this game, contributed valuably to a stand of 50 with Richard Blakey, however, before falling to Graveney in the gloom.