Yorkshire v Leicestershire at Headingley September 6-9th Bob Willis Trophy

Day 1

BEN Coad took five for 18 his ninth first class five wicket haul in an innings as Yorkshire dismissed Leicestershire for 124 in less than 50 overs at Emerald Headingley.

Stand-in skipper Adam Lyth won the tos and put the visitors in on an overcast morning and then he watched the wickets tumble.  Coad got his first wicket in his fourth over as he gave opener Sam Evans a terrible working over before he was the second leg before victim back in the hutch and that was Coad’s 150 first class victim. Coad said: “It’s a great achievement to be able to tick that off, but I’m still young and it’s only the start of my career. So there’s still a lot more to get. I just want to keep ticking off these milestones and take as many wickets as possible. I’m very happy where I’m at with my cricket.”

Coad got his second wicket in the fifth over after lunch. Rishie Patel and Harry Swindells looked to have settled the Leicestershire innings after its shaky start.  But the pair were parted after they  had added 23 in 16 overs.  Patel was the man to go when he edged one from Coad that left him to Lyth at second slip for 19 but he  should have had an extra two. He smashed Fisher straight back but the ball hit Swindells in the midriff and denied Patel any runs.

Four overs later Arron Lilley missed a straight ball and was leg before to give Coad his third wicket. Coad wrapped the Leicestershire innings up with two wickets in two balls.  Wicket keeper Swindells,who top scored with 36, was the ninth man out.  He fenced at one outside his off stump and Jonny Tattersall decided to move to his right in front of Tom Kohler-Cadmore at first slip to take the catch.

Earlier in his innings Swindells lent back and uppercut Duanne Olivier over point just short off a six. Yorkshire should have got rid of Swindells when he was on 34 when he pulled one that came back in at him from Olivier to Tom Loten at mid wicket but as he fell he dropped the ball.

Alex Evans playing his second first class match edged his only ball to Lyth at second slip who took a low catch. The players started to walk off but umpire Peter Hartley said ‘Hang on I haven’t given him out.’ After conferring with fellow umpire James Middlebrook, Evans was given out.

Coad should have got six wickets. When he was brought back into the attack before lunch he found the edge of Patel’s bat but the ball went between Tattersall and Kohler-Cadmore at first slip and ran to the boundary. The ball looked like Kohler-Cadmore’s catch.

It was Matthew Fisher who got the early breakthrough for Yorkshire in the fourth over when he got one to swing back in Hasan Azam and got him leg before. Leicestershire skipper Colin Ackermann became the third leg before victim of the morning when he missed a straight ball from Fisher.

Lancastrian Harry Dearden looked in good form and likely to save the Foxes’ innings but two balls after he played the shot of his innings he was out. He drilled Olivier beautifully to the extra cover boundary then he blasted Olivier straight back and he took a one handed catch inches off the ground. Jordan Thompson was the only Yorkshire bowler to go without a wicket but he was unlucky. He managed to hit Greg Mike’s stumps on three but didn’t dislodge the bails.

Mike tried to hit Leicestershire out of trouble and used the pace of Fisher to pull him off his legs for a six over fine leg. But that was it from Mike, he edged the next ball without moving his to Harry Brook at slip.

Dieter Klein got off the mark when he hit Fisher straight back over his head for a four which also brought up the Foxes hundred. The South African tried to work his fellow South African Olivier off his legs but got a leading edge to Brook.

 Replying to Leicestershire’s 124 Yorkshire were soon in trouble losing both openers before they had reached 10. First to go was Kohler-Cadmore who clipped Alex Evans off his legs to Sam Evans at square leg. Six balls later Lyth was squared up by Klein and edged him to stumper Swindells. Lyth was dropped off the first ball of the innings by Ackermann at second slip off Klein.

Just after 4.00 the umpires took the players off the field for rain and that is where they stayed because the umpires abandoned play for the day at 5.20.

Coad said: “It was a good toss to win and bowl. The wicket had a bit of give in it, so it seamed around. We picked a great ball as well, which swung around. It was very favourable. It’s unfortunate that I’ve missed the last few games with that side strain, but it’s always nice to bowl at Headingley. It’s a seamer-friendly pitch, and thankfully I took advantage. I’ve been bowling a bit with the white ball because that’s the period I’ve been fit for.

 I was hoping to play in a couple of them. But I played in a second-team game at Weetwood and got a couple of spells under my belt and I feel fully fresh now. “I’m not 100 percent sure on the points situation and how many we’ll need to get. But we just want to put a big score on the board to drive this game home. Hopefully we can get a big partnership with Will Fraine and Loten in the morning.”

Day 3

YORKSHIRE need another five Leicestershire wickets on the final day of their Bob Willis trophy match but unfortunately they won’t make the Lord’s final.

They were eliminated because they failed to get maximum batting points despite three players getting half centuries: Jonny Tattersall top scored with 71, Jordan Thompson hit 62 and Harry Brook made 53. After Essex’ victory over Middlesex at Chelmsford earlier in the day Yorkshire needed to reach 400 to stand any chance of reaching the Final at Lord’s. Yorkshire’s fate was sealed at 3.24 when Ben Coad was superbly caught at point by Sam Evans off Ben Mike for and Yorkshire were all out for 252.

In the afternoon session Yorkshire had lost five wickets for 88 runs in 27 overs. Doing the damage for Leicestershire was former Lancashire player Arron Lilley who took three wickets for 21 in six overs and his three wickets came in ten balls.

First to go in the afternoon session was Tattersall who made 71,his eighth first class fifty and his third of the competition. He brought up his fifty with a top edge edge cut that ran to the third man boundary. His fifty came from 82 balls and included 10 fours. With Thompson they added 116 and when they were together, 400 looked on.

The pair came together after the fall of Brook’s wicket. Brook hit consecutive fours off Gavin Griffiths in overcast conditions. The first through mid wicket and the second through the covers. He even pulled Dieter Klein over square leg for another boundary. Thompson said: “It is frustrating that we can’t qualify, but we can’t really do much about the weather we had against Derbyshire and Lancashire. With the team we’ve had, losing Dawid Malan to England and getting Jonny Bairstow coming and going again, we’ve done really well. We’ve had young lads make their debuts and stand up.“Durham was a good win and at Notts as well – we defended 180 there. The wins we’ve got, we’ve really worked hard for.” 

He added: “It was tough with the bat. I got going quite quickly before lunch, but it got a bit gloomy after lunch when they turned the lights on it was difficult. It was tricky to score. Me and Tattersall had to dig in and build a partnership, and that’s what we did. I didn’t actually bowl as well as I’d like to. Looking at the highlights, you’d think I’d bowled pretty well, but a couple of the wickets weren’t the best. But that happens sometimes, with the pressure built up from the other three lads, who did bowl well.”

After the second day was washed out play the third day started on time under grey clouds and Yorkshire were soon in trouble. Will Fraine pulled Klein but didn’t get enough power in it and the ball looped over Mike who ran a couple of yards to his right to take the catch.

Four overs later Yorkshire lost their second wicket of the morning when Tom Loten top edged a wide delivery from Klein. It was so wide that Loten did well to reach it. After their initial successes the Leicestershire attack lost their accuracy and became wayward in particular Mike which allowed Brook and Tattersall to rotate the strike and cross the boundary rope. The runs came a lot easier and in eight overs they had already brought up the fifty partnership. Eventually they added 75 in only 14 overs.

Brook pulled Klein for a six and on drove Mike to the long on boundary. But he fell three balls after reaching his fifty when he edged a drive off Alex Evans to Colin Ackermann at second slip. Eight balls after losing Tattersall, Yorkshire lost their second wicket of the afternoon when Matthew Fisher was caught and bowled by Lilley for one. Two overs later Lilley trapped Thompson leg before. Two balls later Lilley got his third wicket when Duanne Olivier was caught by Colin Ackermann at slip.

Leading by 128 Yorkshire got off to a great start to Leicestershire second innings when that man Coad was in action again. trapping Sam Evans leg before in the third over. In the 14th over Leicestershire last wickets. Thompson started the over by getting Hasan Azad caught down the legside and he finished the over by getting Harry Dearden caught behind when he edged a drive.

Rishie Patel threw everything at Thompson but found Jack Shutt in the covers. Fisher drew Harry Swindells into a drive when the ball left him late and he got a feather touch to it to give Tattersall his third catch of the innings. Lilley managed to hit consecutive boundaires off Olivier but didn’t convince anybody that he was in control. The first flew over the slips and the second he just hung his bat out. At 5.35 with 16 overs left in the umpires took the players off the field for bad light.

The Yorkshire players wore black armbands as a mark of respect for their Director of Cricket Martyn Moxon whose mother died yesterday.

Day 4

YORKSHIRE’s Jordan Thompson finished with five for 31 his first five wicket haul in first class cricket as they beat Leicestershire by 10 wickets to finish top of the Northern group in the Bob Willis trophy at Emerald Headingley.

 It took them 105 minutes in the morning session to take the remaining five Leicestershire second innings wickets. The visitors added 83 to their overnight score with captain Colin Ackermann top scoring with 47 and was the ninth Leicestershire man out when he played inside one that was angled in at him and was bowled by Thompson. The last wicket pair of Gavin Griffiths and Alex Evans decided to have some fun with the bat. They added 22 in two overs before Alex Evans was beaten by Thompson’s pace and was bowled.

At the start of the day in sunny conditions Ben Coad and Matthew Fisher made the ball talk as they were practically impossible to play. First to go was Arron Lilley who played and missed so many times at Coad that it was a surprise that he managed to edge a drive straight to Will Fraine at fourth slip. Lilley only added three to his overnight score. Next to go was Ben Mike three balls later when he was pegged back by Coad as the ball hit his back pad.

Dieter Klein was dropped twice in the space of four balls.  The first was a routine slip catch by Tom Kohler-Cadmore at first slip who got both hands to it.  Then he was dropped by Coad at long leg. After that Klein started to hit out he hit Duanne  Olivier straight back over his head for a four. Two balls later he top edged a pull over square leg.  With his skipper they added 43 in 13 overs making Yorkshire bat again before Olivier broke the partnership when Klein cut him to Thompson at backward point.

Yorkshire openers Adam Lyth and Kohler-Cadmore faced two overs before lunch scoring four and in the afternoon it took them just 26 balls to knock of the remaining 30 runs.

Yorkshire first X1 coach Andrew Gale said: “It’s disappointing because I feel we’ve played well enough to warrant getting to Lord’s.  We’ve lost nearly 500 overs, and the games that have gone the distance we’ve won.  The games in the middle, I thought we were driving it against Derbyshire and the Lancashire game was in the balance. If we had had good weather against Derbyshire who knows what would have happened. We certainly would have pushed hard for the win.

I am proud of the lads because they have done everything we’ve asked them to do. They couldn’t really have done much more. We could have maybe scrapped a little bit here and there for a few extra bonus points, but you certainly can’t win games of cricket in two days. That can’t be helped. 

We’ve played some really good cricket, and it’s been a pleasure to see some of the young lads take their opportunity. The ones who probably haven’t have learnt the standards they need to be at, it’s a good eye-opener and a lesson for them going into the winter as to what they need to work on.

All in all, we’ve done all we can, and it’s disappointing not to be going to a Lord’s final.”

Yorkshire finished with 87 points, three points behind Essex and 10 points behind Somerset who met in the final.

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