Lancashire v Yorkshire July 11-14th

Day 1

FOR the second successive Roses match Yorkshire captain Steve Patterson won the toss and by 5.00 looked to have made the wrong decision as Lancashire scored 273 for the loss of only two wickets and Keaton Jennings hit 132.

Yorkshire bowling coach Rich Pyrah said: “Patterson was set on batting but the clouds came over just before the toss and he changed his mind.  In the first hour I thought we bowled really well but we didn’t get the nicks we deserved.  We didn’t capitalise in the first hour and it has cost us the first day.”

Jennings became a member of a select group of Lancashire players to hit two centuries against Yorkshire in the same season.  Only 13 Lancashire players have done that and the last was Haseeb Hameed.  He said: “It’s always nice to score a century and even better against Yorkshire.

Today was a really good effort but the next 15 or 20 overs are going to be crucial, if we can put on a really big score and make us difficult to beat.  If we can get to 400 or 500 we'll have a real stranglehold on the match.

We would have batted if we had won the toss because it looked a good surface to bat on. At Emerald Headingley the ball is always going to do a bit in the morning.   It was hard work but we managed to get through it.”

With Alex Davies the Lancashire openers  put on 163 for the first wicket their third partnership of 50 or plus in the  last three Roses matches including one in the Bob Willis trophy last year.
 
The opening partnership was broken when Davies missed a straight ball from Jordan Thompson and was adjudged leg before.  It was the sixth time this season that Davies has past 50 but has yet to reach a hundred.   He reached his fifth Roses half century and his sixth Championship century of the season off 91 balls with a push off Patterson for a single and he hit eight fours including one when he viciously cut Thompson to the cover boundary.

It seamed to take him an age to get off the mark but it only took him four balls, it felt longer because Jennings had hogged the strike.  He drove Thompson to the cover boundary for the shot of the morning and to overtake Jennings.  In Patterson first over he blasted him to the extra cover boundary.  He steered Thompson through third man for a couple to bring up the Lancashire fifty at noon.

During Jennings’ knock he  passed 8,000 first class runs and 2,000 first class runs for Lancashire. He  took a liking to Dom  Bess and reverse swept him to the third man boundary to bring up his fifty off 129 balls with six fours in 181 minutes.  Later he went down the track to Bess and lofted him over long off into the Emerald stand.  After tea he danced down the wicket to Bess and launched him again into the Emerald stand to take him into the nineties.

The former England opener drove Patterson to the extra cover boundary to which Patterson responded by kicking the ground in frustration. Maybe it was the frustration of someone who was disappointed with his decision to put Lancashire.

Yorkshire suffered more misery with the new ball. Well they say the new ball brings wickets or runs, it brought more runs for Lancashire as Jennings and Luke Wells hit four fours in seven balls.  After that explosion of runs the dismissal of Jennings after 335 minutes was very meek, he gently pushed the ball back to Thompson.


Yorkshire gave Championship debut to 20 year old Dominic Leach from Middlesborough although he played in two Bob Willis trophy matches last season and he nearly made an early breakthrough. In his second over he and the slips went up for a catch behind off Davies’ first ball.

While Lancashire brought in George  Balderson Championship and Jake Blatherwick signed for Nottinghamshire made their Championship debut’s for  Lancashire 

Day 3
THE  third day’s play in the Roses match was abandoned after 23.2 overs following an injury to Yorkshire’s Dominic Leech who received his second team cap before play started.

At 4.25 two hours and 10 minutes after the incident a message on the scoreboards said ‘Play has been abandoned for the day due to unfit conditions water has risen to the surface in key areas where there has been most activity including the bowlers’ run up’s.’

Yorkshire’s first team coach Andrew Gale said: “We have got two of the most experienced umpires in the country. They didn’t feel that they wanted to see more people in that area getting hurt.  The water was coming up all the time. There is something wrong at the end of the ground with drainage.  The umpires didn’t want to get to the situation where James Anderson rolls his ankle.  It’s almost a reaction. I didn’t  see the ground there this morning but I trust the umpires.  They wanted to play earlier  this morning and when the incident happened they didn’t want to see another player getting hurt.”

To clarify Gale’s remarks Yorkshire issued the following statement. Umpires Ian Gould and Nigel Llong deemed the outfield fit for a 12pm start, but conditions worsened as the afternoon went on with water rising to the surface in some of the key playing areas where the most activity had taken place, including on the bowler’s run ups. This was primarily at the Emerald Stand of the ground.

Analysis of the outfield at that end has previously taken place and has identified issues with a layer of thatch that can cause a build up of water on the surface following heavy rain-fall.

The Club had originally planned to get the outfield re-laid prior to the 2021 season but unfortunately difficulties arising due to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in this being delayed. The Club intends on completing this work at the end of this season.

Gale added: “I do feel sorry for the members because they haven’t seen too much cricket in the  past two years.  I feel like it’s one of those weeks after England and Derbyshire.  Hopefully the sun will stay out and we’ll play tomorrow.”

Lancashire coach Glenn Chappell said: “We had a lot of rain yesterday and the ground was still wet this morning. Maybe the heat has brought the moisture to the surface.  The umpires are doing their job and are as disappointed as everybody else. We were batting trying to get as many runs as we could but you’ve got to respect the umpires.

Coming here and scoring 411 for two you can’t ask for anything more.  They choose to bowl and at times on the first day the ball did move around, so I wouldn’t say that it’s a 411 pitch.  This season we’ve only  had one bad day in red ball cricket. Now we’ve got to come back tomorrow.  I will be happier tomorrow if we get 20 wickets”

Lancashire third wicket pair of Luke Wells and Josh Bohannon were carving the Yorkshire bowlers apart by adding 59 in seven overs while before lunch in 16 overs they scored 59.  Wells heaved Dom Bess towards the mid wicket boundary and Leech gave chase. At 2.15 in saving the boundary Leech’s feet gave way and his left knee slid into the concrete base of the Western Terrace and he started banging the ground with his hand in agony.  After 15 minutes he was stretched out off the ground and the players took an early tea at 2.35.  Gale added: He has been taken to hospital by the physio and I hope it’s a break and not a ligament.  He was in a lot of pain.”

After tea Yorkshire issued the following statement on the scoreboards: “Following an inspection of the playing area some areas have been deemed unfit for play.  A further inspection will follow.

55 minutes after the end of the tea interval in sunshine umpires, accompanied by shouts of ‘Get on with it and you don’t know what you're doing’ inspected the bowlers' run up which had  caused problems earlier in the day’s play.


On the playing  side play started an hour late on the third day after the second day’s play had been abandoned without a ball being bowled. After adding 11 to their score Bohannon flashed at Leech and the ball flew to Harry  Brook at first slip who got both his hands to it but spilled the ball.

Wells pulled Leech to the square leg boundary to bring up his second Roses fifty from 142 balls in one minute shy off three hours. Bohannon late cut Leach to the third man boundary to bring up the Lancashire 300.  He hit two successive fours off Jordan Thompson, the first was a thick edge to the third man boundary and the the second was cut to to the point point boundary.

Bohannon flatbatted Thompson over point for a six and reached his fifty which came off 78 balls and included eight fours and that six when he pulled Thompson to the mid wicket boundary.


Wells swept Bess to the fine leg boundary to bring up their  hundred partnership which came off 169 balls and Wells lofted the next ball into the Emerald stand.  In the next over he drove Patterson over the long off boundary for another six.
Bohannon also took a liking to thrashing Patterson and whipped him to the mid wicket boundary 

After 110 overs Lancashire were 342 for two and it was the first time since 2011 that Yorkshire have inserted a team and failed to take a bowling point.  The last time was at Hove against Sussex and the Yorkshire captain was Gale.