Bairstow bolsters Yorkshire before rain secures draw

Captain Jonny Bairstow posted an unbeaten 86 as Yorkshire thwarted a depleted Durham attack to secure a Rothesay County Championship draw during a shortened fourth day at the Banks Homes Riverside.

Impressive Bairstow shared half-century partnerships for the fifth and sixth wickets with allrounders George Hill and Matthew Revis during the morning session as Yorkshire, who started the day on 132 for 4 in their second innings - leading by 12 - reached 232 for 5 at lunch.

With a lead of 112, Yorkshire had taken the sting out of the situation and continued to build their lead after the break, when rain arrived just before 3pm with the score at 277 for 6 from 105.3 overs and 157 ahead. A draw left them with a 13-point haul from this third round match, added to an earlier defeat and victory to start the season.

Durham will rue the loss of injured seamers Paul Coughlin and Brendan Doggett throughout this fixture, which saw them claim 15 points and end a two-match losing start.

Bairstow's 167-ball effort included 11 fours and represented his second fifty of the summer.

Coughlin's abdominal problem was sustained on day one and seems more serious. Australian overseas Doggett, however, went over on his ankle during day three and was not on the field purely as a precaution.

It meant captain Alex Lees, who scored a first-innings 172, was left with only four bowling options on day four - tireless new-ball seamers Ben Raine and Matthew Potts, medium-pacer Will Rhodes and the part-time offspin of Colin Ackermann. Durham had to use their 40-year-old batting coach Will Gidman as a substitute fielder.

Bairstow started day four, which began with the floodlights on, with only two runs to his name. But he was quickly out of the blocks with a couple of boundaries off Potts in the day's opening over.

The situation meant that Bairstow, who played the last of his 100 Tests for England to date in March of last year, was never going to be wholly dominant. But he was far from becalmed against both the old ball and then the new.

He completed a fifth-wicket stand of 59 with Hill, who contributed 24 before pulling Ackermann to midwicket, leaving Yorkshire at 176 for 5 in the 73rd over, a lead of 56.

Bairstow was strong on the pull against Potts and then Raine, either side of reaching his fifty off 91 balls, while he drove another eye-catching boundary almost arrow straight off Rhodes.

Revis also moved into the 20s with a couple of back-foot boundaries off Raine just before lunch at 232 for 5 with some light rain falling. After lunch, Potts had a five-over spell which Yorkshire negated. But by then, it felt as if the sting had been taken out of the situation with the threat of rain increasing.

Potts bowled 50 overs in this match - 20 in the first innings and 30 in the second - for three wickets and has sent down 139 in three matches so far this season. Raine, meanwhile, has bowled 141 overs - the most in Division One. He took six wickets in the match.

Ackermann had Revis caught behind off the inside-edge on 40, leaving Yorkshire 272 for 6. That ended a 96-run partnership with Bairstow, who was denied the chance to post a 32nd career first-class century. But his No. 1 objective of steering his side to safety had been achieved.

Umpires Martin Saggers and Surendiran Shanmugam called a close to the fixture at 4pm.