Yorkshire v Glamorgan at Headingley May 3rd-6th County Championship Div 2

Neil Whitaker reports

Day 1

ONLY 41 overs were possible on the first day of the first day’s play between Yorkshire and Glamorgan at Headingley  because of rain and bad light.

Yorkshire have now lost  over 438 overs to the rain equivalent to four and half days of cricket.  In the play  that was possible Billy Root made 51 while  Sam Northeast hit 29 before he was unfortunate to be run out and Yorkshire took four wickets.  

Root  must love batting against Yorkshire in six innings for Glamorgan against Yorkshire he now averages 69. He  said: “I always love playing against Yorkshire and here it’s where I started. Playing against Joe is like playing against anybody else. It's just a bit emotional and that makes it tricky.  Today I felt good.”

Playing on the same pitch that they played Derbyshire on, Yorkshire made two changes from the side that played against Derbyshire, spinners Dan Moriarty and Dom Bess replaced George Hill and Jordan Thompson.  It was the  first Championship match at Headingley that Yorkshire have played two frontline  spinners  since 2013 when they played Warwickshire.  In that match Azeem Rafiq and Adil Rashi were the spinners but they only took one wicket between them and Azeem Rafiq only bowled one over and Adil Rashid bowled 24 overs. 

Moriarty said: “We opted for a different approach to this game and it’s up to me and Bess to prove that we are good enough to take wickets and win the match.”

Glamorgan won the toss and decided to bat, on six Root was dropped by Root. Billy Root edged Ben  Coad and Joe Root at first slip moving to his right got his right hand to it but couldn’t hold it.  Despite that drop Yorkshire did make an early breakthrough when Coad pinned Eddie  Byrom on the crease to end his first innings of the season.

Moriarty was introduced into the attack after seven overs and he beat Root, on eight, when he   came down the pitch to Moriarty and got an inside edge which just missed his stumps. Moriarty said: “ I’ve taken the new ball before and got  the ball to bounce.  I think this partnership is big for them and if we can break it quickly we need to be on it tomorrow.  It’s a good pitch and it’s a bit slow so me and Bess can take wickets and bring Yorkshire into the game.  This is an opportunity for me and Bess to win a game for Yorkshire and it’s good that the coach and captain have given us the responsibility.” 

Root drove  Bess to mid on for a single to bring up his fifty from in balls with six fours. He survived two  leg before appeals by Moriarty in the last over before lunch but he couldn’t survive  the last ball when  got an inside edge  and  the ball looped to  Finlay Bean at short leg. He thought that he had been give out leg before.  “Was I caught? I thought it was leg before, we’ll have to check that” Root said.

While  Moriarty added: “I thought it flicked a glove and we all went up for the catch. We thought  we would create a bit of theatre for the last over before lunch. I thought the leg before  the previous ball was quite close.”

After a stoppage of nearly three hours Glamorgan lost their third wicket to the second ball after the restart.  Kira. Carlson drove Fisher straight and he deflected the strong drive on to the stumps to run out Northeast. To rub salt into Northeast’ s wounds after three overs with Fisher and Coad bowling Yorkshire forced to take them out of the attack due to the light.  Bess replaced Coad and with his first ball he got when Carlson dragged back a drive to Bess a return catch.

Before play started a minute's silence was held in respect of Worcestershire spinner Josh Baker who died yesterday at the age of 20.

Day 2

YORKSHIRE opener Finley Bean hit his first Vitality Championship century of the season as he built on the foundations laid by spin twins Dom Bess and Dan Moriarty to put Yorkshire in a dominant position after day two against Glamorgan.

He pulled leg spinner Mason Crane to the square leg boundary to take past his previous best score for Yorkshire with the Glamorgan fielders complaining that they couldn’t see the ball because the light was bad.  The umpires took pity on them and the players off the field with Yorkshire 74 ahead and Bean unbeaten on 140.

The 22 year old   reached his century when he drove James Harris to the cover boundary.  It took him a while to get going but once he did there was no stopping him.  His ton came from 111 balls with 17 fours and two sixes.  After tea, Bean and Joe  Root, who was unbeaten on 92 at the close, went berserk scoring 85 runs in 11 overs as they closed in on Glamorgan’s score. Their hundred partnership came from 76 balls.  When Root turned Harris off his legs for a single  Yorkshire passed Glamorgan’s score.

Bean made  Glamorgan pay for dropping him on six; the guilty man was Harris who spilled a simple return chance.   He drove Crane over long-on for a six  and  drove Mir Hamza straight past the bowler.  Two balls later he squeezed the ball along the ground to bring up his fifty off 62 balls with eight fours and a six.

He said: “It’s quite pleasing, my  first hundred of the season,  we’ve set the game up 

and put us  in the driving seat.  I feel that I’ve been playing well but there are still things that I need to work on.  Last year I felt that I didn’t score enough big hundreds and I said to myself during the winter that I want to get hundreds and make them pay.

We tried to put their spinners under pressure and put them off their lines and lengths because we saw that they didn’t do that to our spinners.  We are scoring at a rate which is very quick so maybe we get full batting points and take it from there.”

Glamorgan lost their last six wickets for 59 in 23 overs to spinners Bess and Moriarty  in 90 minutes either side of lunch.  Bess finished with four for 25, his best figures for Yorkshire since he took five for 158 against Leicestershire at Headingley in April last year.  

Bess’ first wicket of the day was Colin Ingram, who fell two runs short off his fifty, when he played back to Bess and was leg before.   Tom Bevan fell on the same score as Harris when he  reversed swept Bess and again the ball looped to Bean at short leg.  Shortly before he got out Bevan drove Moriarty to Joe Root at silly point and fortunately for Bevan the rebound went to ground. His final wicket  was Jamie  McLlroy who  pulled him to substitute George Hill at short backward square leg.

Moriarty’s  four wickets cost  74 runs and were his best for Yorkshire since he took five for 139 against Gloucestershire at Headingley 11 months ago.

Commenting on his three catches at short leg Bean said: “ I want to get out of fielding there but you can’t drop catches on purpose so I am just waiting for someone younger to come into the side. “

Play started  12 minutes late  because of bad light and early morning rain. For  an hour both Ingram and Chris Cooke looked comfortable paying due respect to the bowlers until Ingram on 30 reversed slogged Moriarty just out of the grasp of Matt  Revis  at short third man, two balls later  he smashed Moriarty over the long on boundary into the Howard stand for a six.

Cooke guided Revis gracefully off his toes to the cover boundary. But that was the end of his scoring in the next over he cut Moriarty to Harry Brook at cover. He could have hit anywhere but he picked out Brook. 

Harris had a charmed innings.  He  was nearly out before he scored when he  edged his first ball from Bess just short off Adam  Lyth at slip.  On nine he   pulled Bess to Ben  Coad at short fine leg who dropped the chance. His luck ran out when he    got an inside edge to  Moriarty and the ball looped to Bean. 

Mir Hamza top edged a slogg off Moriarty and Jonny Tattersall raced around from the stumps to tame the catch at silly point.

Yorkshire  set about scoring quick runs to get up to and then pass Glamorgan’s score and to bowl Glamorgan out again and Lyth hit a quick 20 with all the runs coming in boundaries before he tried to turn Mir Hamza to leg and was leg before.  Shan Masood prodded at Crane, got an inside edge and the ball flew to Eddie Byron at short leg.

Glamorgan’s assistant coach David Harrison said: “We’re slightly behind the game and that’s what happens when you get two very good players on a good wicket and we couldn’t control  the run rate, they were going at three an over.   We’ve had a chat in the dressing room on how we can get better and we’ve got to be more consistent and that will be the message tomorrow.  We would have liked a few more runs but a few things didn’t go our way.”

Day 3

GLAMORGAN captain Sam Northeast and Colin Ingram’s  defiant fourth wicket partnership of 78 ensured that the match would go into the final day.

The pair came together after Kiran Carlson was unlucky to be run out.  He danced down the pitch to Dom Bess and smashed him, the ball hit Joe Root’s foot at silly point and rebounded to Jonny Tattersall who dislodged the bails.  Glamorgan were 93 for three still 205 behind Yorkshire’s first innings 519 for seven dec.  At the close Northeast was unbeaten on 46 and Ingram was 43 not out.

Mason Crane said: “Hopefully we'll keep battling as we are,hopefully get a lead and see where that takes us.  We have still got the new ball to cope with. It's been tough, but Yorkshire have played very well.”

Trailing  by 298 Glamorgan lost their first wicket when Billy Root, after adding 56 with Eddie Byrom, got an inside edge to Dan Moriarty, who came into the attack after seven overs, and watched the ball trickle onto his stumps.

Byrom top edged a sweep off  Bess and Ben Coad at backward square leg ran in from the boundary to take the catch at his knees.

Finley Bean top scored for Yorkshire with 173 and shared  a third wicket partnership of 265 in 44 overs, Yorkshire’s highest third wicket partnership against Glamorgan at Headingley, before declaring 298 ahead of Glamorgan.

Without adding to his overnight score Bean edged Mir Hanza and the ball flew to Ingram at first slip but he couldn’t hold it.  Bean deftly guided James Harris to the cover boundary to bring up his 150 from166 balls with 22 fours and four sixes. He aggressively smashed Crane straight for a six into the Howard stand.  He played back to Crane who cramped him up for room and bowled him.

When you’ve just conceded  265 to Root and  Bean the last person you want to see coming to the crease is Harry Brook and that’s what Glamorgan had to face. Brook marked his arrival to the crease with a straight six off Crane.  He threatened to run amok and  reached 30 from 32 balls and then he became subdued.  But he reached his fifty from 63 balls when he dabbed Jamie McLlroy to third man for a single. His fifty included three fours and two sixes.with 

 Root reached his 150 with a Staffordshire cut off Harris which deceived stumper Chris Cooke and ran to the boundary for one of Root’s 21 fours in his 150 which came from 158 balls.  His superb innings ended when tried to run Harris down  to third man but  missed  the ball which came back in and was leg before.Root brought up his second century in consecutive Championship matches at Headingley when he drove Harris to the cover boundary to bring up his century off 100 balls. His 

Jonny Tattersall played a typical old fashioned wicket keeper innings, always busy and he   flicked Crane to the mid wicket to take Yorkshire past 500 to maximum batting points.  Audaciously he swept Crane to the fine leg boundary and pulled the next ball  for a six to bring up his fifty off 51 balls with eight fours. With the declaration imminent Tattersall   ran down the pitch to Crane to give Cooke an easy stumping.

He said: “We’re in a good position, they’ve got two great players at the crease but we’d be happy to chase 100 on the last day if we have to and we’re certain that we would get over the line. We’ve had a bit of luck in this game but we’ve taken our chances.

I am feeling good with the bat but my chances have been slim batting behind Root and Brook but I’ve got. a job to do.  Today I felt that I scored at a good rate.  It’s good when teams try to contain Brook because then I go under the radar.  I think I am coming to the peak of my career and at  the moment I am putting the bad balls away.”

Matt Revis tried to sweep Crane and was bowled around lis legs and lost his off stump. Yorkshire added another single before they declared on 519 for when  Brook edged a drive off  Crane to substitute Andrew Gorvin  at point.  In his last spell Crane took three 13 in 3.1 overs  to give him a five wicket haul 12 of those runs came in  his first over.

Crane added: “They came hard at me but I had to stick at it and I am pleased at the way I did.  You’ve got to hang in on days like those.”

In the final over before tea   Matthew Fisher was chasing the ball to the boundary and seemed to trip over the boundary rope.  He was replaced by Jordan Thompson and will be assessed in the morning but is unlikely to take any further part in the game.

Day 4

A FLASH of lightning at 4.18 drove the players off the field with Glamorgan 78 ahead with only three second innings wickets left and at 4.56 rain forced play to be  abandoned as a draw.

Yorkshire had 96 overs to bowl Glamorgan but once again they couldn’t take 20 wickets at Headingley.  They were denied  by a record breaking fourth wicket partnership for Glamorgan against Yorkshire of 210 between Glamorgan captain Sam Northeast and Colin Ingram.  They beat the previous record of 184 by Alan Jones and Gwyn Richards at Middlesbrough in 1976. At the close Northeast was unbeaten on 142.

Northeast said: “We knew that we had to do everything to pull through and we had a bit of luck with the darkness. We  take a lot of positives  away from the game but we do  need to improve.

Me  and Ingram tried to be as positive as we could by  rotating the strike.  I think that Ingram  is in the best form that I’ve seen him in.  When we batted we took it half an hour at a time.  It was nice to be there at the end and pleased to come out with a draw.

We used two heavy rollers and they did the trick to deaden the pitch. I thought Yorkshire played really well.”

Expecting the ball to turn Yorkshire opened the day with spin twins Dom Bess and Dan Moriarty bowling in tandem. Both Northeast and Ingram reached their fifties in the same  Bess over. First Northeast turned Bess off his legs for a single.  Ingram guided the next ball through the covers for a couple to bring  up his fifty.

In the first hour with the old ball Glamorgan added 43 in 19 overs with neither Northeast and Ingram looking in any trouble. Then on 90 Ingram  top edged a sweep of  Moriarty just over Bess at short fine leg and ran to the boundary. Three  balls later he edged a drive off Moriarty just wide of Adam Lyth at slip and the ball ran to the third man boundary.

Ingram reached his century, which came from 202 balls with 18 fours when he drove Bess through extra cover for a couple. The partnership was broken in the sixth over after lunch  when Ingram drove Joe Root over long off and Shan Masood took the running head height  catch much to the relief of the frustrated Yorkshire fans.


Northeast reached his century when he flicked Moriarty through square leg for a single.  His century came from 226 balls with 12 fours.  The partnership between Northeast and Chris Cooke seemed to get stuck,  the scoreboard stopped  moving and Cooke’s 48 minute stay at the innings ended with their lead on 31 when  he dragged  Root  back on to his stumps.

Tom Bevan survived several loud leg before shots until the last ball before tea when his luck ran out.   He  played back to Lyth to one that he should have played forward to and was plumb leg before.  Lyth got his second leg before wicket when James Harris pushed forward at him, got  a big stride and was amazed when  umpire Mark Newell gave him out.

Yorkshire head coach Ottis Gibson said:  “They used two heavy rollers and I think that they took the life out of the pitch and in my view I think that the use of the heavy roller should be banned.  On the first day the pitch had more life and carry than it did when we played Derbyshire on it.

In this game we did everything apart from win the game, we batted quickly and score 500 runs quite easily.  We have driven the game from the first day.  To win matches you need to create chances and we did on everyday. Today I thought Northeast and Ingram batted really well but the heavy rollers took the sting out of the pitch.

With eight points for a draw we come out of this match with 16 points so we haven’t really missed out. We are not that far behind Sussex and we play them in the next game. But we need to win pretty soon and winning matches keeps the players motivated and hopefully our next game will be the one where we get over the line.”

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