No sign of Mustard cooling as Durham thrash Yorkshire

Phil Mustard continued his astonishing barrage as his unbeaten 66 took his tally in four one-day innings, starting with the Friends Provident final, to 277 from 183 balls.

Although they seemed to view the pitch with suspicion, the Tykes had no excuse other than the absence through injury of Darren Gough and Michael Vaughan for crawling to 122 all out in 39.5 overs.

A gathering of ex-players from Minor Counties days must have felt they could beat Yorkshire on this evidence and Durham cruised home by nine wickets in 15.4 overs.

In the absence of Michael Di Venuto with a suspected hernia, Gareth Breese went in to open and he and Mustard had 28 on the board after five overs, whereas the visitors had taken 15 overs to reach the same mark.

Mustard left his partner behind in the eighth over, driving successive balls from Tim Bresnan for four and six, and completed his 50 off 27 balls, six slower than against Leicestershire the previous day.

He reached his half-century with two fours and a straight six off successive balls from Ajmal Shahzad, and as Durham had successfully used two spinners it was a mystery why Yorkshire's acting captain Anthony McGrath waited until Durham were four short of their target before bringing on left-armer David Wainwright.

Kyle Coetzer promptly cracked him for two fours to finish on 26 not out, having put on 59 in five overs with Mustard.

Breese, who earlier bowled Andrew Gale at a time when Yorkshire needed a hurricane, was relishing his chance to open until he was run out for 32 after setting off for a run to backward point. He was sent back, but was so far down the track that Richard Pyrah was able to run in and remove the bails.

After disappointing a big crowd at Scarborough on Sunday by slumping to 58 for eight against struggling Surrey, Yorkshire were reeling at one for three in the third over.

They chose to bat, but on the same Riverside track on which Durham raced to 218 for four in only 30.1 overs on Sunday, the Tykes seemed bemused by a lack of pace and bounce as they floundered against tight bowling.

Just as in the Friends Provident Trophy final, golden arm Ottis Gibson struck with the first ball of the innings. Jacques Rudolph seemed to be through his tentative drive too soon and the ball flicked his off bail, then seven balls later Neil Killeen drifted one in to have Craig White lbw.

White, who probably owed his place to Vaughan's back spasm, has now had four ducks and an 11 in his last five innings in all cricket.

In the next over Gerrard Brophy clipped Gibson straight to Coetzer at mid-wicket and departed with a look of suspicion at the pitch.

With Mustard standing up to Killeen, the fourth over yielded two lots of four leg byes and it was a further two overs before McGrath scored the first run off the bat when he turned Killeen to fine leg.

Inzamam ul-Haq guided the next ball wide of gully, but he never settled and in the 14th over he fell lbw trying to work Ben Harmison's fifth ball to leg. The former Pakistan captain's scores for Yorkshire so far have been eight, nine and seven.

Harmison had been brought in for Di Venuto, who is not expected to miss tomorrow's championship visit of Worcestershire.

The slowness of the pitch also prompted Durham to prefer Paul Wiseman to Graham Onions, while Liam Plunkett concentrated on accuracy in bowling straight through his eight overs for 27 runs.

There were only 12 overs of the innings left when Wiseman came on with the score on 64 for four, and only two singles came from his first over.

McGrath completed a 108-ball 50 in the 34th over but without addition he went down the pitch to Wiseman and was bowled, ending a stand of 70 in 21 overs with Gale.

The left-hander departed in the next over, bowled by Breese for 25 when swinging across the line, but Bresnan showed that strokeplay was possible when he drove Wiseman for a straight six.

It was the first boundary for 18 overs but he immediately followed it with a four to mid-wicket before skying the next ball to Mustard.

David Wainwright was stumped first ball off Breese, bringing in Ajmal Shahzad wearing Richard Pyrah's shirt despite the fact that Pyrah was at the other end. It seemed to sum up Yorkshire's confusion.

Shahzad holed out at deep mid-wicket to give Wiseman his third wicket and Pyrah was run out off the penultimate ball.

It was Yorkshire's lowest total against Durham in the one-day league, beating their 133 at Headingley in 1995, and if this is how they perform without Gough they must pray that his absence is brief.

Durham face Hampshire at Hove today in the final of the U17s County Championship and will be hoping for more good contributions from Sunderland-born captain Scott Borthwick and all-rounder Ben Stokes. This is the first time Durham have reached the final in the competition's current format.

Coach John Windows said: "The team has played particularly well with a very young side where everyone has played their part in our success. There is a great team ethic, which runs throughout the club, and this side really buy into that concept."

Darren Gough could miss Yorkshire's crucial Championship match against Sussex which begins at Hove on Wednesday week. The Yorkshire captain is to have a scan towards the end of this week on the sore left shin which prevented him from playing yesterday.

It was during Sunday's game with Surrey Lions at Scarborough in the same competition that Gough was forced to leave the field for treatment after bowling only two overs.

He suffered a similar problem towards the end of last season with Essex and it has bothered him in recent matches.

Yorkshire physio Scott McAllister said the scan had been arranged in order to be absolutely sure that Gough was not playing with a stress fracture.

That diagnosis would mean the end of his season but the recovery time from shin soreness can be two or three weeks and the Championship leaders' visit to Hove for their crunch match against the title holders may still prove to be a little soon for him.

Gough won't want to jeopardise his chances of being fit for the final match of the season against Hampshire on September 19.