TO say cricket is a funny old game is an understatement. It can be crazy and cruel, as Durham found to their cost on the second day at Scarborough.

The fall of 25 wickets in the first four sessions was followed by an afternoon session in which 211 runs were added without further loss.

Four wickets went down in the evening as Yorkshire closed on 420 for nine, leading by 426 after scoring 410 in the day.

It was difficult to say which looked flatter as a result of the ageing ball – the pitch or the Durham attack as Glenn Maxwell and Adil Rashid scored centuries in a sixth-wicket stand of 248.

Durham's hectic schedule appeared to have drained John Hastings, but Chris Rushworth kept running in, and after taking his 500th first-class wicket Graham Onions beat the bat countless times without finding the edge.

It was a similar story in the evening session, when Rushworth beat Liam Plunkett four times in one over with the new ball, underlining how luck had deserted Durham.

Plunkett made 27 before Ryan Pringle came on with three overs left and had him lbw with his first ball.

After tea both Maxwell and Rashid were caught at deep cover by Graham Clark for 140 and 127, then Tim Bresnan edged to second slip.

That gave Rushworth his seventh wicket of the match and took his first-class tally to 76 for the season.

It was not a day for praising Australians, so suffice to say that Maxwell owed Yorkshire some runs with only one championship match left before his departure.

Yorkshire fans would previously have been chuntering about the fact that he hadn't scored a championship half-century, but they gave him a standing ovation for transforming what threatened to be a two-day game.