PAUL Collingwood is an ex- Test player, but he showed all his international class yesterday with a masterful century against Yorkshire.

It helped Durham to 408 for eight declared, a lead of 223, and in seven overs Yorkshire reached 13 without loss.

If the weather is kind at Chester-le-Street today Durham will have a chance of recording their fourth successive innings win with maximum points.

While Collingwood provided the ballast in his innings of 108, there were rapid half-centuries from Gordon Muchall (40 balls), Phil Mustard (47) and Scott Borthwick, who reached the target off 68 balls and finished one short of his career-best on 67 not out.

Finally, Callum Thorp twisted the knife deeper for the tormented Tykes, who dropped six catches, as he hit three sixes in his 29 and increased the run rate to 5.24 an over.

Collingwood said: “It’s been a huge day for me. I’ve been out of form for quite a long time and had a lean run in the Twenty20.

“When you’re chasing 180 or 200 in T20 cricket you can only give yourself three or four balls to settle in, but here I had to be watchful when I first went in because the pitch was quite spicy.

“Your confidence levels diminish when you’re not in good form and it’s a horrific feeling knowing you’re going to get out. So it’s a huge relief to realise I can still play and score runs.”

Collingwood has played 300 times for England in all forms of cricket and, despite retiring from the Test arena, he still wants to play in one-day internationals.

But the presence of selector James Whitaker yesterday is unlikely to help his cause when the one-day squad is named.

Whitaker would have been more interested in Yorkshire’s up-and-coming youngsters like Jonny Bairstow, Adil Rashid, Ajmal Shahzad and Joe Root. But the one who would really have caught his eye was Steve Patterson.

With tall bowlers in vogue, the 6ft 4in seamer bowled a superb spell, making Collingwood work hard to survive early in his innings, when his judgement of what to leave provided a textbook lesson to some of his teammates.

With Dale Benkenstein among Patterson’s three richly- deserved victims, Collingwood provided the rock around which others tried to make up for the loss of a day and a half to rain.

Not that he was any slouch in completing his century off 145 balls, reaching it with a clip for three through midwicket off Patterson.

Although Collingwood’s appearances have been fleeting, his century was his first for Durham since he scored six in 2005.

It was a surprise when he fell to Root’s off spin for 108, giving Lyth his third catch at slip in what had been a chanceless innings.

Had Richard Pyrah accepted the chance at second slip offered by Mustard off Patterson from the first ball he faced Durham would have been 141 for six and the game would have been evenly poised.

But by the time Mustard departed for 70, made off 67 balls, only Durham could win the truncated contest and they will be praying that the forecast showers stay away today.

Pyrah also missed Mustard on one off Ryan Sidebottom then Yorkshire skipper Andrew Gale dropped him at mid-off on 38.

The Durham captain continued to lead a charmed life when he was given out lbw by Tim Robinson, who then amazingly changed his mind.

Mustard was on 58 and indicated that he had edged the ball on to his pad in attempting a reverse sweep off Adil Rashid.

Mustard’s final escape was not too costly for Yorkshire as the next time he edged a reverse sweep on to his pad the ball lobbed up to slip.

But there was no let-up for the beleaguered Tykes as Borthwick was dropped at slip off Rashid on 16 and went on to play a dashing innings full of sweeps and lofted drives off the spinners.

This was the fourth successive match in which Durham had achieved maximum batting points without a significant contribution from Michael Di Venuto.

He has scored 37 runs in four innings since his century at home to Somerset and had already survived a difficult chance to Rashid at third slip when he edged Shahzad to the same fielder.

Bowling in attacking style, Shahzad kept feeding Muchall’s cut and cover drive and conceded 36 runs in five overs. But he also looked unlucky not to have Will Smith lbw.

Smith made 13 before he fell in Patterson’s first over. He pushed forward and edged to third slip, where Rashid took a fine catch low to his left.

Muchall drove Patterson through the covers for his ninth four to reach 50 then when Sidebottom returned for a second spell his first ball was glanced to the fine leg boundary.

But Muchall then fell in similar fashion to Smith, except that he edged to Lyth at first slip when the ball was slanted across him.

Extra bounce from Patterson accounted for Benkenstein, who was caught behind for five and the same bowler had Ian Blackwell caught by Lyth off an airy drive for 28.

Had Mustard departed to the next ball it might have been a very different story.

SCORECARD

Durham v Yorkshire
At Emirates Durham ICG.
Overnight: Yorkshire 170-9.

Yorkshire First Innings
A Shahzad not out 18
S A Patterson c Mustard b S Harmison 12
Extras (b1 lb6 w1 nb2 pens 0) 10
Total (59.1 overs) 185
Fall: 1-0 2-9 3-28 4-70 5-76 6-90 7-148 8-
149 9-152
Bowling: Onions 22-5-75-3. Thorp 11-3-38-
1. S J Harmison 12.1-4-27-3. Collingwood 6-
1-22-2. Blackwell 8-2-16-0.

Durham First Innings
M J Di Venuto c A U Rashid b Shahzad 5
W R Smith c A U Rashid b Patterson 13
G J Muchall c Lyth b Sidebottom 55
P D Collingwood c Lyth b Root 108
D Benkenstein c Bairstow b Patterson 5
I D Blackwell c Lyth b Patterson 28
P Mustard c Lyth b A U Rashid 70
S G Borthwick not out 67
C D Thorp c Patterson b A U Rashid 29
G Onions not out 11
Extras (b3 lb2 w1 nb6 p5) 17
Total 8 wkts dec (77.5 overs) 408
Fall: 1-7 2-54 3-86 4-91 5-141 6-254 7-319
8-387
Did Not Bat: S J Harmison.
Bowling: Sidebottom 14.5-1-71-1. Shahzad
9-0-63-1. Pyrah 11-1-47-0. Patterson 18-2-
82-3. A U Rashid 18-1-98-2. Root 6-1-33-1.
McGrath 1-0-4-0.

Yorkshire Second Innings Close
A Lyth not out 4
J E Root not out 4
Extras (b4 lb1 pens 0) 5
Total 0 wkts (7 overs) 13
To Bat: A McGrath, A W Gale, J M Bairstow,
G S Ballance, R M Pyrah, A U Rashid, A
Shahzad, R J Sidebottom, S A Patterson.
Bonus Pts: Durham 8 Yorkshire 2
Bowling: Onions 4-2-4-0. Thorp 3-1-4-0.