Jacques Rudolph struck his second consecutive century and third of the season as leaders Yorkshire battled bravely against tight bowling on the first day of their LV Championship match at Durham.

Although Yorkshire's batting was weakened by the absence through injury of Gerard Brophy, they still got the better of their opponents by reaching 351 for six by the close of a fascinating day's play.

Apart from some loose overs early in the afternoon from former Yorkshire rookie paceman Mitch Claydon, Durham's bowlers were more accurate than probably anything which will shortly be seen from either side in the Test match at Headingley.

The spearhead of their attack was the untiring Ottis Gibson. The 38-year-old West Indian, stung just below the throat by a bee during his first spell, swung and seamed the ball all day and thoroughly deserved his figures of four for 70 from 23 overs.

Winning the toss for the fourth time in five Championship matches, Yorkshire had to endure a tough start against Test prospect Graham Onions and Claydon, who can generate impressive pace without always sufficient control.

Only 24 runs had come off the first ten overs when Gibson replaced Onions and his fourth ball was glanced by Joe Sayers into the gloves of Phil Mustard, the left-hander's only scoring stroke in 36 deliveries being a boundary.

Anthony McGrath still has to find his touch in first-class cricket and when he flicked Mark Davies to mid-wicket it took his tally of Championship runs this season to just 62 in six innings.

Yorkshire were struggling on 35 for two but Craig White and Younus Khan retrieved the situation with composed batting either side of lunch.

After a cautious start, White began to blossom, particularly when playing off the back foot through the covers.

He completed his half-century off 125 balls with seven fours and his two boundaries at the end of one Claydon over were followed by three fours by Rudolph at the start of his next.

An elegant innings of 64 by White was ended as he tried to remove his bat from a Gibson delivery but only deflected it into his stumps, while Younus had made a comfortable 49 when he fell to the same bowler's second lbw appeal of the over.

Adil Rashid survived a sharp return chance to Gibson before he had scored but went on to unfurl some courageous strokes, including two glorious cover drives off Gibson and a couple off on-driven boundaries at Onions' expense.

Not to be outdone, Rudolph off-drove Onions stylishly for three boundaries in an over and hit off-spinner Paul Wiseman for a straight six.

But with the stand worth 75 in 19 overs, Rashid pushed forward at an almost unplayable delivery from Davies and was caught behind for 30.

After taking 22 balls to get off the mark, Tim Bresnan started to off-drive attractively and he even had the lion's share of the runs in his 50 stand with Rudolph, who got stuck on 72 for a long while.

But after they had added 61 together, Bresnan edged Gibson to Gordon Muchall at third slip and Yorkshire were 294 for six.

Now it was Simon Guy who gave valuable support to Rudolph in another sizable partnership, Rudolph lashing Claydon to the cover fence and then racing a single to complete a sparkling century off 169 balls with 15 fours and a six.

Yorkshire just had time to pick up a fourth batting bonus point before close of play, when Rudolph was unbeaten on 104 and Guy 25.

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