Neil Whitaker reports
Day 1
YORKSHIRE captain Jonny Bairstow hit his first Championship century for Yorkshire as captain and his first Championship hundred at Leeds since he hit an unbeaten 125 against Middlesex in 2015.
He reached his hundred when he cut former teammate Matthew Fisher to the point boundary. His hundred came from 160 balls with 15 fours and a six. With Adam Lyth, Bairstow added 241 in 60 overs.
Lyth made Surrey pay for dropping him on 31 by hitting his first Championship century at Headingley since 2024 when hit 147 against Northamptonshire.
The man guilty of dropping him was Ryan Patel and the unlucky bowler was Sean Abbott. Lyth edged Abbott and in slow motion the ball carried to Patel at third slip. The Surrey players had started to celebrate Lyth’s wicket but their celebrations were abruptly ended when Patel dropped the sitter. To rub salt in the Surrey wounds in the next over Lyth dug out a yorker from Dan Worrall hitting the ball straight to the long-off boundary.
Lyth pulled Abbott to the mid-wicket boundary to bring up his third 50 of the season from 124 balls with nine fours and later he caressed Abbott to the cover boundary. He welcomed Dan Lawrence’s introduction to the attack by tickling his first ball to the fine leg boundary to bring the hundred partnership between him and Bairstow from 158 balls.
Bairstow and Lyth came together after Yorkshire had lost both Joe Root and Harry Brook in the space of six overs for 16 runs. Root was his normal self occupying the crease but also scoring runs quickly in the blink of an eye.
Root got the third four of his innings to take him to 12 when he got an outside edge to a ball which came back at him from Jordan Clark. He advanced down the pitch to Worrall and was lucky that his edge went between third slip and gully. He clipped Worrall off his toes to the square leg boundary. In the next over he got Chinese a cut to Fisher and the ball ran to the fine leg boundary to bring the 50 partnership with Lyth from 78 balls.
Root started the afternoon session by hitting consecutive fours off Fisher: the first through the cover and the second was straight. And that was that from Root he was leg before to the next ball as he tried to turn Fisher to leg.
As Root was his normal calm self Brook was his normal chaotic self. Brook advanced towards Fisher and drilled him to the mid-wicket boundary. He ran down the pitch to Fisher and steered him to Rory Burns at first slip.
Bairstow glanced Patel through the slips for consecutive boundaries. He looked to be back to his old confident self as he drilled Worrall to the long off boundary. Cheekily he stroked Adam Thomas’ second ball to the point boundary and threw the kitchen sink at a widish ball from Worrall to the point boundary.
He drove Worrall twice in consecutive balls and both times he hit the stumps at the bowler's end. He clipped Thomas off his legs to the fine leg boundary to bring the 50 partnership with Lyth off 86 balls.
Bairstow pulled Abbott over square leg for a six into the Western Terrace, which two fielders on the boundary edge didn’t pick up. He cut Abbott to the point boundary for his 50 which came from 88 balls and included six fours and a six.
Like Lyth, Bairstow also enjoyed the introduction of Lawrence to the attack as he reversed swept him to the third man boundary.
Fisher suffered another Chinese cut to the fine leg boundary this on brought up the 200 partnership and Bairstow went to 99. Fisher said: “We let ourselves down a little bit, but we will come back in the morning and try and get an early wicket and then you never know. I think sometimes you have to give the batsmen a bit of credit. They were you 121 for four we were all over them. And I think there was less movement as the day went on.”
Yorkshire made three changes from the team that lost to Warwickshire at Edgbaston, Will Luxton replaced Finlay Bean, Root came in for James Wharton and Jhiye Richardson replaced Logan Van Beek. While Surrey made two changes from the team that drew with Nottinghamshire:Thomas replaced the injured Ollie Pope and Fisher came in for Reece Topley.
After they were put in Yorkshire new opening partnership of Lyth and Luxton raced to 23 in five overs with five fours then Luxton chipped Fisher to Dom Sibley at short mid-wicket. Matty Revis shouldered arms to Clark and the ball came back and kissed the off stump.
Day 2
ONLY 37 overs were possible on the second day before rain stopped play just before 4.00 and play for the day was abandoned at 5.43 with Surrey dismissing Yorkshire and just received four overs.
Surrey had a good morning session taking the six remaining Yorkshire wickets for 124. They were boosted by the fact that they dismissed Jonny Bairstow early and within 30 minutes Surrey had got rid off both overnight batsmen. First to go was Bairstow who chipped Matthew Fisher to Jordan Clark at mid-on who had to run in and dive forward to take the catch in the second over of the morning. With Adam Lyth, Bairstow added 246 for the second wicket and he hit 16 fours and a six in his 120.
Bairstow said: “I don’t think the rain has ruined the game, I think it puts the pressure on them. If you think you're nearly 500 behind, you know you’ve got to bat for a day and a bit in order to stay in the game, and there’s been plenty in it all game. It’s swung all game, there’s been bounce, and they had us 121-4. If we bowl well and turn up tomorrow, you never know - bowl them out for 200 or 250, it's game on.
It's nice to obviously score 15,000 (first-class runs), but you want the next one, 16,000, and then so on and so forth.”
Six overs later Lyth’ s mammoth 460 minute innings ended when hung his bar out to Clark without moving his feet and edged him to Rory Burns at first slip who took the catch in his midriff. Lyth faced 304 balls and hit 21 fours. Bairstow added: “Lyth is still one of the best players in the country, and he keeps on doing it year in and year out. He's the heartbeat of our dressing room. Week in, week out, he goes about it the same way and produces.”
George Hill beautifully drove Clark to the extra cover boundary and with Bess they regularly found the boundary and their 50 partnership came off 49 balls. Hill edged a drive off Sean Abbott just wide off Burns at first to the third man boundary. The partnership added another seven before Hill pushed at Dan Worrall edged him and Adam Thomas at second slip took a comfortable catch.
Dom Bess pulled Abbott to the square leg boundary. In the next over he drove Clark straight. Abbott was replaced by Dan Lawrence and Bess tried to reverse sweep him but missed the ball which kissed his off stump.
Ben Cliff was bowled by Lawrence’s googly. Jhiye Richardson and Jack White batted like bowlers using the long handle. White lofted Lawrence over mid-on for a one bounce four into the Howard stand. He hit the next ball straighter but got the same result.
The innings was wrapped up when Richardson pulled Clark to Fisher on the long-leg boundary. Fisher ended the innings four for 92 and Clark took three for 94.
The downside to the morning for England fans was Jamie Smith wasn’t behind the stumps because he was hit on his right hand on the first day and Josh Blake kept wicket while Smith was an outfielder.
In the four overs that Surrey faced Burns edged the fifth ball of their innings from Richardson but luckily for him the ball dropped a yard short off Joe Root at first slip.
“Obviously, we know a lot about Bairstow and Lyth, Bairstow can be quite disruptive so to get them both early today was ideal. It was a shame we couldn’t break the partnership yesterday, but that happens, they played well and credit to them.
Tomorrow we hope to set the foundations. The pitch has got that tennis ball bounce and at Headingley it’s free scoring ground and it’s hard hard to defend.”
Day 3
YORKSHIRE are on the verge of a big innings victory over Surrey with one day left.
They dismissed Surrey for 204 in 59 overs, with Australian Sean Abbott top scoring 56 coming in at number nine, following on Surrey are 83 with five wickets remaining needing another 199 to make Yorkshire bat again. Doing the damage for Yorkshire in Surrey’s first innings was George Hill who took four for 34 and took two catches and Matty Revis who took three for 45 and in their second innings Harry Brook has taken three for 11.
Play on the third day started on time after there had been overnight and morning rain and Surrey must have wished that play hadn’t started at all as they lost seven wickets for 90 runs in 25 overs before lunch.
Hill, who at one time had taken four wickets for 12 runs in eight overs, found himself on a hattrick. His first victim was Surrey’s opener Dom Sibley. Sibley clipped Hill off his toes to the square leg boundary. Two balls later Sibley glanced Hill off his legs to Dom Bess at leg slip.
Ryan Patel looked to be in good form when drove Jhye Richardson to the extra cover boundary. But in the first full over after a 17 minute stoppage for rain he top edged a pull off Hill and Revis took a simple catch at square leg.
Hill got his third wicket when he brought one into Josh Blake which rose and left him taking his edge on its way to Jonny Bairstow. He got on a hattrick when he swung one in at Jordan Clark and took his inside edge and played on.
Coming in at the fall of Sibley’s wicket Jamie Smith must have decided that the only way to survive was to attack the Yorkshire bowling. He got off the mark when he thumped Revis to the cover boundary but in Revis’ next over Smith edged a drive without moving his feet and Hill at third slip took the catch at chest height as the ball was passing his right.
Dan Lawrence took Smith’s hint and attacked. After driving Revis to the long off boundary in Revis’ next over he walked across his stumps and whipped Revis to the mid-wicket boundary. Then he drove Revis for consecutive fours in his next over, first to the extra cover boundary and the second to the cover boundary. But his fun ended when he drove Revis to Adam Lyth at cover. Surrey had lost six wickets for 35 runs in 45 balls.
At the beginning of the day Surrey captain Rory Burns edged Richardson through the slips but the ball dropped short off Brook at third slip and ran to the boundary. Richardson got the next ball to rear up at Burns who fended it off and Will Luxton at point ran in to take the catch.
Josh Blake slashed hard at Ben Cliff and the ball burst through Joe Root’s hands above his head at first slip on its way to the third man boundary. Later in the over Blake top edged a cut to Hill at third slip. His partnership with Abbott was the main partnership of the Surrey innings and it was worth 58.
With two wickets standing Abbott bludgeoned the Yorkshire attack. He pulled Cliff over the mid-wicket boundary for a six and pushed forward at Hill guiding him to the point boundary to bring up his fifty from 53 balls with five fours and two sixes. To end the over he drove Hill straight for another four. Revis squared Abbott up taking his edge and Root at first slip took a comfortable waiste height at first slip.
Dan Worrall blasted Cliff to the extra cover boundary to bring up Surrey’s 200. Going for a straight slogg off Cliff he got an outside edge to Bairstow. The last three wickets added 111 in 33 overs.
Revis said: “ We got our rewards today. You only have to look at the way that Lyth and Bairstow played to put us in the position that we're in now and allow us to set the fields that we do and allow us to bowl with the freedom and really attack. At times of season we’ve been behind the game. So it's been difficult to kind of put that pressure on.
Following-on 282 behind Burns edged the fifth ball from Richardson over the slips for four despite Brook getting a finger tip to it and then leaving the field. Yorkshire broke the opening partnership when White, bowling around the wicket, seamed one away from Burns taking his edge and Bairstow did the rest.
Patel cut Brook to Cliff at cover and two balls later Brook got his second wicket when he angled on in at Smith who missed it. Revis added: “I was at midoff and as soon as it beat him, I was just thinking that was a beauty and the next thing I know Brook is nearly halfway in the stand. It was certainly a nice ball and I think he'll keep it in his memory bag.”
Lawrence chopped on to Revis. Thomas cut Brook straight to Lyth at point. Blake edged his first ball from Brook to Bairstow but Yorkshire’s captain dropped the ball as he dived.
Surrey’s head Gareth Batty said: “We were below our standards and we've got some work to do now. There were some good spells of bowling, of course, but I think an amount of it was our own doing.
Tomorrow it’s about just creating a partnership and trying to put some sort of time pressure back on Yorkshire, which, whenever they were just starting to question partnership, we gave them a wicket, so we’ve just got to extend on those periods of play. And see where we go.”
Day 4
IT took Yorkshire 102 minutes on the final morning to take the remaining five Surrey wickets as they beat them by an innings and 127 runs.
Yorkshire head coach Anthony McGarth said: “We’ve had two very different performances in seven days. I keep saying the problem for us is consistency.
If we can do what we did against one of the best teams, but at our worst we are very bad. We know that they're all good players and I think all of us players and coaches are scratching our heads on why we've been so inconsistent.
To get through on day one with four down put us in a strong position. If we had lost a couple of more wickets at 120 for four, it could have been different, but the way that Jonny Bairstow and Adam Lyth batted was faultless.
I thought George Hill and MattyRevis were relentless with their lengths; they kept coming in and again it was a fantastic performance from them.”
In the second over of the day Dom Sibley, on 34, turned Jack White off his hips to Dom Bess at leg slip but Bess couldn’t hold on to it. Without adding to his score in the next over he poked at Richardson and the edge flew to Harry Brook at second slip who took the catch twisting to his left.
Josh Blake’s 33 minute stay at the crease ended when he played outside the ball to White bowling around the wicket and was leg before. Jordan Clark was beaten by both Jhiye Richardson and White on a regular basis and it was White who knocked Clark’s off stump out of the ground with that came back at him.
Bess dropped another catch at leg slip, this time it was Matthew Fisher on five, this time the bowler was Hill, but both times the bowling was from the Howard stand. To be fair to Bess the ball was coming at a rapid speed.
Fisher ducked into a bouncer from Revis. Two balls later he pushed at Revis and edge reared up to Joe Root at first slip.
Sean Abbott and Dan Worrall had some fun swinging the bat as they added 35 final for the final wicket before Hill sent Worrall’s off stump cartwheeling out of the ground. Abbott was unbeaten on 33 just failing to be Surrey’s top scorer in both innings.
It was Surrey’s first defeat by an innings since they were beaten by Hampshire at Southampton in 2024.