Durham v Yorkshire (County Championship) : Day One

IAN BLACKWELL might just have registered somewhere near the bottom of England selector James Whitaker’s list of players to watch at Riverside yesterday.

Michael Vaughan and Steve Harmison are the ones under the microscope, followed by Liam Plunkett and Adil Rashid, who were yesterday named in the England Lions team to play the West Indies next week. Plunkett will miss Durham’s game at Taunton and Yorkshire must do without Rashid against Worcestershire at Headingley.

Matthew Hoggard, Tim Bresnan, Graham Onions and possibly even Phil Mustard would be in the selectors’ thoughts more than Blackwell, pictured below. But if he continues to show his current hunger for runs, even at 30 it should not be too late for him to come back into contention.

He followed his century against MCC at Lord’s by making 95 after going in with Durham looking slightly wobbly on 82 for four. They closed the first day in defence of their title on a very satisfactory 303 for seven.

On a sublime day, Will Smith could have had no hesitation in batting when Yorkshire captain Anthony Mc- Grath called wrongly. But Durham were 129 for five when Phil Mustard joined Blackwell.

If this mouth-watering blend of hard-hitting lefthanders stays together for any length of time, the scoreboard is bound to tick over briskly, with the potential to change the game dramatically.

By the time they had added 100 the contest had, indeed, taken on a different hue, but the fourday game’s potential for kaleidoscopic changes was evident when Hoggard took the new ball.

He immediately swung one much more lavishly than he had in the morning and Blackwell was almost unbalanced as he shaped to drive and gave wicketkeeper Gerard Brophy his fifth catch.

Such is his penchant for striking boundaries that Blackwell accumulates runs almost unnoticed. Sometimes he appears to drive rather airily through the ball with a minimum of foot movement, but invariably the ball flies to the rope.

One of his few scares yesterday came on 18 when Brophy decided to keep him in his crease by standing up to lofty seamer Steve Patterson.

Blackwell drove at the next ball and it narrowly evaded everything on its way for four byes.

He was also beaten in Rashid’s first over, but then bludgeoned the leg-spinner over mid-on for one of the nine fours in his 71-ball 50.

Deon Kruis was dismissively pulled for four in his third spell after tea, when he was in danger of being taken apart after impressing earlier in the day. But the new ball ended the fun until Callum Thorp joined Mustard late in the day and contributed a sprightly 24 to an unbroken stand of 46.

Durham included Gordon Muchall at the expense of Gareth Breese, and the No 4 found himself at the crease in the 17th over with both openers back in the hutch. But luck still refused to go his way as, for the fourth time in four innings this season, a good ball found the edge of his bat.

Muchall was out for 13, caught by Brophy off a ball from Patterson that bounced a little more steeply.

That was a straightforward catch for Brophy, but he dived a long way to his left to hold a low chance offered by Mark Stoneman.

Hoggard and Bresnan initially bowled too short, feeding Michael Di Venuto’s strength, but when Bresnan pitched one up, Stoneman drove at it and was out for two.

Di Venuto scored 36 of the first 41 runs, but then skied an attempted pull off Bresnan to Hoggard at mid-on.

Once he had held the ball, Hoggard pretended to juggle it. Perhaps it’s all part of projecting the fun-loving image hinted at in his autobiography, currently being serialised with a mass of asterisks in The Times, at the expense of proper match reporting.

Hoggard claims to have been deeply miffed about his England exit, but there was little in his opening spell to suggest he can come back. He did, however, snare Smith with a good ball straight after lunch.

Brophy dived to hold an excellent catch when Dale Benkenstein edged a drive at Kruis, who then had a confident first ball LBW appeal against Mustard rejected.

On two, Mustard edged a dab at Patterson just over first slip, but he showed he was fully alert shortly afterwards when he did well to dig out a swinging yorker from Hoggard.

Blackwell was in full cry by then and once Mustard began to middle the ball the partnership flourished. Yorkshire were relieved to break it and Bresnan claimed a third victim when Plunkett fended a catch to substitute James Finch at fourth slip.

There was still time for Yorkshire to end the day in the ascendancy, but Thorp ensured that things remained evenly balanced.

SCORECARD

Durham v Yorkshire
At Riverside. Durham Won Toss

Durham First Innings Close
M J Di Venuto c Hoggard b Bresnan 36
M D Stoneman c Brophy b Bresnan 2
W R Smith c Brophy b Hoggard 21
G J Muchall c Brophy b Patterson 13
D M Benkenstein c Brophy b Kruis 17
I D Blackwell c Brophy b Hoggard 95
P Mustard not out 62
L E Plunkett c Sub b Bresnan 10
C D Thorp not out 24
Extras (b10 lb8 w5 pens 0) 23
Total 7 wkts (96 overs) 303
Fall: 1-20 2-41 3-69 4-82 5-129 6-236 7-
257. To Bat: G Onions, S J Harmison.
Bowling: Hoggard 21-5-72-2. Bresnan 22-
5-51-3. Kruis 18-2-60-1. Patterson 22-6-61-
1. McGrath 9-5-19-0. A U Rashid 4-0-22-0.