Dale of tears for sad Tykes

11:50am Saturday 17th May 2008

Yorkshire were blown away at the Riverside as Dale Benkenstein justified his own decision not to enforce the follow-on with an outstanding unbeaten knock of 86 that saw Durham wrap up victory in three days.

Yorkshire's director of cricket Martyn Moxon was disappointed with the manner of the defeat as Yorkshire lost by a massive 295 runs, one of the biggest defeats in their history.

"From a bowling point of view we didn't use the new ball well enough," he said. ""We let them get too many runs when they made 400 in the first innings and then we didn't cope as a batting side."

Yorkshire started Durham's second innings at a canter but Benkenstein steadied his side after a calamitous beginning to the day that saw the returning Matthew Hoggard grab two wickets in helping the Tykes reduce the hosts to 84-5.

Michael Di Venuto then added an unbeaten 45 to add to his majestic first innings 184 as he helped Benkenstein drag Durham to a lead of 417 before they declared.

In reply, as in the first innings, the visitors self-destructed early on. Joe Sayers' score of 22 proved to be the best any of the top seven batsmen could manage before he was caught by Kyle Coetzer off the bowling of Ben Harmison.

Tim Bresnan was undoubtedly the best player in Yorkshire colours after taking six wickets in the match and adding an unbeaten 32 to his first innings score of 46 with England selectors present and Moxon is convinced the 23-year-old has what it takes to achieve international honours.

Said Moxon: "He's got all the attributes, he bowls at a good pace with good movement, his technique has been good this season on some pretty difficult surfaces."

Yorkshire have the opportunity to bounce straight back from the defeat when they take on Scotland in the Friends Provident Trophy in Edinburgh tomorrow but after seeing them beat Lancashire at Old Trafford this season, Moxon is taking nothing for granted.

"It's one of those potential banana-skins as Lancashire found out," he said. "We've got to make sure we go there and put in a good professional performance."

Yorkshire have been boosted by the news that Rana Naved arrived in England late last night and could play after joining up with the squad, although at this stage it seems unlikely he'll be blooded before the club have had a chance to have a good look at him.

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