Durham v Yorkshire: Day two lunch
ANTHONY McGrath made Durham pay for dropping him last night when he took Yorkshire into a first-innings lead at Chester-le-Street this morning.
The right-hander had made 20 when Phil Mustard put down a difficult chance last night. At the time it looked as if it could be costly, and so it proved.
McGrath emulated Michael Di Venuto by scoring a century in this low-scoring encounter, taking his side past Durham's 213 in the process.
More importantly than his personal milestone, it gave Yorkshire a lead in a keenly-contested four-day game between the sides third and fourth in the County Championship.
McGrath played some good shots on day one, but was more fluent after a good night's sleep. His driving was a joy to behold, hitting 16 fours and a six in the session and 20 boundaries overall in his 183-ball 116 not out.
Under bright blue skies, only Chris Rushworth bowled as well as the previous day.
Liam Plunkett took the first wicket to fall, although from the Press box it appeared the ball was heading down legside when it struck Rich Pyrah's pad.
At 143-8 Durham looked capable of going in ahead at the chance of innings but a lovely cover drive to get off the mark from Ajmal Shahzad showed a player willing to follow up his five-wicket haul with some good batting. The England man added 66 for the ninth wicket before wafting the second of two excellent Rushworth deliveries behind.
Eleven balls later McGrath flicked the ball down legside for the four which put his side ahead. A beautiful six picked up off his legs took him to 96 and three consecutive fours either side of the pitch off Rushworth took him through three figures and beyond.
By lunch Yorkshire were 241-9.
Thursday's Journal will have a full report of the second-day action.
