All-round effort for Gibson

Ottis Gibson took ten wickets to give Durham hope of victory

Ottis Gibson’s 10-wicket match haul and entertaining knock of 71 left leaders Yorkshire on the brink of their first LV County Championship defeat of the season.

But South African left-hander Jaques Rudolph followed his first-innings century with 79 as Yorkshire closed the third day at Chester-le-Street on 218 for nine, 130 ahead.

It looked like being all over in three days when Rudolph joined Anthony McGrath with the Tykes reeling on 17 for three, still 71 behind.

But they fought an admirable rearguard action and McGrath went on to hit 11 fours as his lean run in the championship ended with 62 off 86 balls.

The stand of 87 in 22 overs ended just before tea when McGrath was caught at short leg off Paul Wiseman to give the former New Zealand Test bowler the only wicket of the match to fall to spin.

Gibson returned on the resumption to have Adil Rashid smartly taken at second slip by Michael Di Venuto and in the next over Tim Bresnan followed Craig White and Younis Khan in being clean bowled by Graham Onions.

At 116 for six with 30 overs left Yorkshire were in danger of a three-day defeat but Simon Guy contributed 28 to a stand of 60.

He became Mitch Claydon’s only victim of the match when he edged to Phil Mustard, and when Gibson returned with the score on 198 for seven he had Rudolph caught at first slip.

In the next over Darren Gough edged a drive to second slip to give Onions his fourth wicket, but last-wicket pair Jason Gillespie and Deon Kruis survived the last nine overs and added 19 precious runs.

Durham did well to reach 481 after losing their overnight pair in the opening half-hour.

Gillespie forced Phil Mustard to glove a leg-side catch to Guy for 59 and Dale Benkenstein was bowled by Gough for 64.

Gibson was on 20 when he picked up Gough high over mid-wicket for a big six and also cleared the mid-wicket boundary off Rashid in making his runs off 74 balls.

Facing a deficit of 88, the third ball of Yorkshire’s innings nipped back to hit White’s leg stump and a similar ball from Onions rattled the off stump with Younis shouldering arms.

In-between, Gibson found steep bounce to have the obdurate Joe Sayers caught by Mustard, but McGrath and Rudolph gave Yorkshire a slim chance of preserving their unbeaten record on Saturday.