Yorkshire's bowlers were given the runaround by Durham captain Mike Hussey when their championship match against the Second Division leaders finally began at Scarborough yesterday after rain had caused the loss of the first 64 overs.

Hussey had charged on to 85 off 136 balls with 13 boundaries by the close when Durham had taken the early initiative by scoring 140 for one from 40 overs.

Yorkshire showed several changes from the side which drew their four-day match against Lancashire at Old Trafford last week, John Blain replacing the injured Chris Silverwood and Simon Guy taking over behind the stumps for Ismail Dawood, who found himself axed for the first time this season.

But the biggest surprise was the last-minute dropping of in-form batsman Michael Lumb in order to accommodate Australian all-rounder Ian Harvey, who has now recovered from a broken right thumb.

Blain, in his first championship match of the summer, opened the bowling with Deon Kruis but was soon punished by Hussey, who steered him for four and off-drove him to the boundary as 25 came off the first four overs.

When Hussey had reached 18 he completed 1,000 championship runs in his 18th innings, the same number that it had taken fellow Australian Phil Jaques to hit the target for Yorkshire.

Hussey, in commanding form, off-drove Blain for four and hooked him to the fence to hurry Durham on to 52 without loss in the 14th over before Kruis made the breakthrough at 56 when he extracted extra bounce from the pitch and had Gary Scott caught behind by Guy.

Blain was rested after seven overs had cost him 41 runs but Kruis was far more accurate and when he gave way to Harvey he had figures of one for 23 in nine overs.

Paul Collingwood was straight off the mark with a hooked four and Hussey arrived at his 50 off only 76 balls with eight boundaries.

Durham made it to three figures in the 25th over and it was in some desperation that Yorkshire turned to Anthony McGrath as their fifth bowler at 115 for one in 29 overs - and although he began with four consecutive maidens, nothing could stop the progress of the second-wicket pair.

The return of Blain brought another boundary for Hussey but he should have lost Collingwood at 128 when the England player edged Kruis to first slip where Jaques put down a fast catch to his right.

It was a wicket which Yorkshire badly needed and at the close Durham's second-wicket pair had added 84 together in 25 overs of mainly untroubled batting against ineffective bowling.