THERE had been barely a drop of rain at Chester-le-Street for six weeks, but a 35-minute shower arrived just when Durham were poised to push for victory against Yorkshire.

It robbed them of nine overs and the visitors held out on 193 for seven, despite a superb performance from Graham Onions.

The 26-year-old paceman finished with five for 56 from 28 overs, but ran out of gas at the end.

Earlier, in the morning sunshine, it seemed the cricket would be unable to match the weather until the Mustard and Onions combination gave it some pep.

Wicketkeeper Phil Mustard caught Joe Sayers off Onions half an hour after lunch and the same duo struck again in the bowler's next over.

This time it was the prize scalp of Michael Vaughan, who seemed to want to treat the day's play as an extended net with Yorkshire content to grind it out for a draw.

Resuming on 3-0 in pursuit of an unlikely victory target of 394, they lost only one wicket in the morning session.

That came when Onions bowled Jacques Rudolph for 16 and at lunch Yorkshire were 60 for one from 35 overs. Beaten twice by the impressive Onions before he had scored, Vaughan had faced 71 balls for 16 runs at the interval.

He added only four more before he followed an away swinger and Mustard held the thick edge one-handed diving to his right.

Yorkshire were then 72 for three and the door was ajar for Durham to begin the defence of their title with a win. But after two slip catches reduced the visitors to 150 for five with 33 overs left the weather took a sudden turn for the worse.

Rain held up play for 35 minutes and Durham's only hope seemed to be that Onions would come out refreshed.

He had claimed a fourth scalp when he had Yorkshire captain Anthony McGrath brilliantly caught low to his left by Michael Di Venuto at second slip. Andrew Gale, not one to dig in, lived dangerously in making 27 before he edged Liam Plunkett to Gordon Muchall at first slip.

There were 24 overs left for Durham to take five wickets when play resumed. Gerard Brophy recklessly hooked Steve Harmison into Onions' hands at long leg, but the only other wicket came when Tim Bresnan edged Onions to Mustard with ten overs left.