You never know

Posted by John Winn

'....they knew they were going down long before survival became impossible with defeat in their penultimate game at Edgbaston.' Wisden Cricketers' Almanac 2003.
The 'penultimate game' was played in September 2002 and despite scoring over 800 runs in the match defeat by six wickets condemned Yorkshire to second division cricket in 2003.
Next Wednesday at Edgbaston Yorkshire begin their 'penultimate game' of this season's campaign.Given yesterday's events at Headingley this must seem as enticing as spending Boxing Day with relatives with whom one has just spent a particularly disappointing Christmas Day. A quick trawl this morning of various media sources' descriptions of yesterday's play, including the YCCC website, finds liberal use of words and phrases like 'brink', 'trapdoor', 'very fragile', 'virtually condemned', 'staring in the face', etc.Yet shortly after lunch yesterday when Root wrapped up the Warwickshire tail, and is there a message in that for Yorkshire's management, all that was required to save what had become an unwinnable match was for the home team to repeat what they had done in their first innings i.e. bat for 94overs.Given today's weather this would probably have been more than enough to give them them the draw and seven points from the match.A quick 'vox pop' in the ten minutes between innings, however, found few members who were confident that this could be achieved. When, with the fourth ball of his first over Keith Barker had Rudolph caught behind the few became very few and when shortly afterwards both scoreboards read Yorkshire 25 for 4 the very few probably became none. The fall of each wicket seemed to jolt the memory of a number of supporters that they had a bus to catch, a dog to walk, a meal to cook, a lawn to mow, anything thing in fact but watch more humiliation.
All this on a lovely sunny afternoon at the end of three days when only ten minutes' play had been lost to rain. Are things so bad? Yes, I hear you say. Can nothing save them, no would be the commonest reply for when yesterday afternoon the majority expressed no faith in the batting, one can't help feeling that whatever the captain or coach might have said the team were similarly lacking belief. The rumours that have circulated for the last three days in themselves justify setting up a separate website and it is not, I believe, the purpose of this blog to discuss such matters in any detail. Suffice to say they seem to focus around dressing room unrest and several players who would prefer to wear another county's cap next season, which, if true, easily transfer to poor performances on the field especially when the opposition are in an excellent position to pip Lancashire for the championship.
Before closing let me suggest a few straws readers might like to clutch.
1) There is a 99% chance of rain in Southampton today
2) Bairstow will be back from his pointless trip to Dublin. Yes I know The Bears will be reinforced too, but Yorkshire's need is greater than Warwickshire's.
3) Hampshire's last three games are against Somerset, Lancashire and Warwickshire.
4) Worcestershire's remaing opponents include Lancashire.
5) Yorkshire still have 48 possible points to play for.
6) Yorkshire don't play in the last round of matches in the second week of September which is notorious for rain. OK I made that up but 50% of optimism is based on wild speculation.
7) When in 1999-00 in a Test match between Australia and Pakistan in Hobart Adam Gilchrist joined Justin Langer at the crease Australia were 126 for 5 needing a further 243 to win. Langer welcomed the incoming batsman with the words 'You never know.' Gilchrist hit 149 not out off 163 balls and Australia won by four wickets. You never know.