Onions in England contention

DURHAM will leave for Taunton today half expecting either Steve Harmison or Graham Onions, or possibly both, to be named on Wednesday in the squad for the first Test against the West Indies.

Having suffered the disappointment of being ignored over the winter, Onions bowled himself into contention with a superb display in front of selector James Whitaker against Yorkshire.

As things stand, both Durham pacemen are available for the match against Somerset starting tomorrow, but with so many bowlers injured the selectors might want at least one of the duo to rest ahead of the Test, starting on Thursday week.

The situation is complicated by England Lions playing the West Indies this week, giving the likes of Liam Plunkett the chance to push his claims. But his form would have to improve considerably as he continues to spray the ball around.

His place at Taunton is likely to go to Mitch Claydon, but if Durham need another bowler they might turn to Ben Harmison as Mark Davies is seeing a specialist in London today about his ankle problem.

Whitaker seemed unconvinced by Harmison’s efforts in the draw against Yorkshire, but he could not fail to have been impressed by Onions.

The 26-year-old paceman took five for 56 in 28 overs of unrelenting effort as Yorkshire held out on 193 for seven, helped by a 35-minute shower.

Onions certainly reminded the selectors that they would be wrong to forget him. Since being named in the one-day squad last summer he has fallen out of favour and said: “It’s very disappointing that I haven’t heard from anyone in the England set-up.

“But I take the view that I’m going to try hard and see what happens. We’ve got a great team ethic at Durham and I’m just looking forward to bowling my overs for them.”

Onions is back to the form he showed early last season, when he also had a five-wicket haul at home to Yorkshire in the third match.

After that he was out for five weeks with a heel injury and never recovered his rhythm. He was unable to get into the team for the final runin to the title.

“I think landing on my left foot after the injury made me a bit wary,” he said. “So I’ve worked on my mental strength over the winter, as well as getting fitter and stronger. I haven’t bowled as many balls as usual, but I’ve been in the gym more than ever.

“Now I’m happy with the way I feel, but I just ran out of gas a bit at the end against Yorkshire. We had to put the hard yards in to get into that position, but we couldn’t quite capitalise.”

Barely a drop of rain had fallen for six weeks at Chester-le-Street, but the very untimely shower arrived just as Onions removed Yorkshire skipper Anthony McGrath to leave the Tykes on 150 for five with 33 overs left.

Nine overs were lost and skipper Will Smith said: “We fancied getting on a bit of a roll after getting McGrath, but the break meant we lost a bit of momentum.

“It was hard work because the pitch was probably the best it’s been throughout the four days. But I can’t fault the bowlers for effort and if we keep performing like that in the second innings we will win a lot of games.”

Among the three victims of the famously tasty Mustard and Onions combination was Michael Vaughan.

The ex-England captain suppressed his attacking instincts in the interests of the team as he faced 96 balls for 20 as Yorkshire concentrated on survival. But when he finally lost patience and followed an away swinger his thick edge was well taken by the wicketkeeper, diving to his right.

Onions twice beat Vaughan before he had scored and once forced him to take hurried evasive action.

He also beat Joe Sayers twice in an over in the morning session before being replaced by Ian Blackwell, who looked unlucky not to have Sayers lbw with his first ball.

The placid pitch offered little to Harmison, whose only wicket came when Gerard Brophy recklessly hooked him straight to Onions at long leg with 16 overs left.

Onions was recalled to the attack with ten overs remaining and had Tim Bresnan caught behind with his third ball, but he had given everything and was replaced by Liam Plunkett for the last two overs.

Adil Rashid and Steve Patterson survived to the close without too much difficulty.

It had always looked likely to be a tough day for Durham as Yorkshire crawled to 60 for one in 35 overs at lunch.

They had resumed in the morning on three without loss after being set a target of 394 to win.

They lost Jacques Rudolph in the 14th over when Onions nipped one into the left-hander to trim his off bail.

When Onions removed Joe Sayers and Vaughan in quick succession in early afternoon, the door was ajar for Durham.

Andrew Gale showed no desire to dig in, surviving a couple of skied pulls before edging a ball from Plunkett he could have left to Gordon Muchall at first slip.

But all the middle order contributed just enough to ensure that Yorkshire survived, and the sun was shining again at the close.

Scoreboard

Durham v Yorkshire At Riverside

Overnight: Durham 362 (I D Blackwell 95, P Mustard 94 no; M J Hoggard4-82) and 303- 5 dec (M J Di Venuto 143, W R Smith 67, G J Muchall 51 no).

Yorkshire 272 (G L Brophy 75, J A Rudolph 51; S J Harmison 4-76) and 3-0.

Yorkshire Second Innings

J A Rudolph b Onions .........................16

J J Sayers c Mustard b Onions .............30

M P Vaughan c Mustard b Onions ........20

A McGrath c Di Venuto b Onions .........26

A W Gale c Muchall b Plunkett ..............27

G L Brophy c Onions b S J Harmison ...27

T T Bresnan c Mustard b Onions ..........20

A U Rashid not out .............................. 6

S A Patterson not out .......................... 4

Extras (b4 lb7 w2 nb4 pens 0) ....17

Total 7 wkts (90.4 overs)........193

Fall: 1-29 2-71 3-72 4-116 5-150 6-174 7-186

Did Not Bat: G J Kruis, M J Hoggard.

Total Bonus Pts: Durham 7 Yorkshire 5 Bowling: S J Harmison 23-8-32-1. Onions 28-9-56-5. Thorp 11.4-5-18-0. Blackwell 11- 2-21-0. Plunkett 17-3-55-1.

Durham (11pts) drew with Yorkshire (9pts)