COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION ONE, Riverside
Durham v Yorkshire
22-25 April
CLOSE OF PLAY, FINAL DAY: Match Drawn. Durham 362 and 303-5 dec, Yorkshire 272 and 193-7(Durham 11 pts, Yorkshire 9 pts)

Graham Onions produced his best Durham performance in a year

Champions Durham had to settle for a draw against Yorkshire at the Riverside after their victory bid was held up by an ill-timed 35-minute shower.

Yorkshire had just lost their fifth wicket when the rain came with 33 overs left. But nine overs were crucially lost, along with Durham's momentum.

Yorkshire eventually closed on 193-7 after being set a target of 394 to win.

Graham Onions' five wickets included that of former England skipper Michael Vaughan, who made just 20 in 96 balls.

Onions' last five-wicket haul was also at home to Yorkshire in the third match of last season. And to finish with 5-56 from 28 overs on a pitch which offered no encouragement was some consolation as the champions were denied a winning start.

Resuming on 3-0, chasing that highly unlikely 394 to win, Yorkshire suffered an early loss in the 14th over when Onions nipped one into left-hander Jacques Rudolph to trim his off bail.

Onions then twice beat Vaughan before he was off the mark.

After Steve Harmison's first innings dismissal of Vaughan, the ex-England captain survived round two with few alarms.

The placid pitch was offering little to Harmison, who twice found Joe Sayers' edge, only to see the ball fail to carry to the slips.

But suppressing his positive instincts for the good of the team did Vaughan no favours. And he had reached just 16 when Yorkshire lunched on 60-1 from 35 overs.

Sayers went soon after lunch when Onions had him caught behind for 30, made from 112 balls.

And Vaughan finally lost patience in the next over when he too found Durham's now infamous Mustard/Onions combination indigestible.

He followed an away swinger from Onions, the thick edge allowing Mustard to take a one-handed catch diving to his right.

Andrew Gale, not one to dig in, surviving a couple of skied pulls before wafting wide of off stump to edging Liam Plunkett to Gordon Muchall at first slip.

Onions then returned after tea to have Anthony McGrath brilliantly caught by Michael Di Venuto low to his left at second slip.

Then came that all-important rain break, even after which there were still 24 overs left on the resumption.

In the eighth of those, Gerard Brophy hooked Harmison straight to Onions on the backward square leg boundary. And, with 10 overs left, Onions was recalled.

Having already bowled 25 overs, he then struck with his third ball when Tim Bresnan edged a drive to Mustard. But there were to be no further dramas as Adil Rashid and Steve Patterson saw Yorkshire safely though to the close.

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