A day in the sun

posted by John Winn

Friends at Headingley this morning all had stories to tell of heavy rain yesterday evening in a variety of places round Leeds but on arrival at HQ at 10:30 the sun was shining, the players were practising in the middle and play began on time. The Derbyshire bowling was in the hands of Groenewald and Palladino, remember when it was Jackson and Gladwin, and Lyth and Ballance  resumed where they had left off yesterday, to the delight of another good crowd.

I wa surprised that the Peakites' skipper, Wayne Madsen delayed a change in the bowling for so long but Whiteley ended Lyth's lovely innings when he was 93 and the score 211, in a rather soft manner when he gave a simple catch to Lineker. Despite this loss Yorkshire continued to bat well and the maximum of five batting points became a realistic target. The dismissals of Ballance and Rashid brought the loanee Andy Hodd to the crease and with a century partnership he and McGrath took Yorkshire within touching distance of the fifth bonus point but with Derbyshire having as many as six fielders on the boundary there followed a passage of play when it seemed they might just fall short of the 400 needed. Tension was added to the situation as Hodd neared 50 and McGrath closed in on three figures. Ultimately all was well although the strain got to one or two members and the bonus point was achieved when a straight drive from 'Mags' went for four with just two balls to spare and brought him his a century. A down payment on a new contract?

What followed beggared belief, for not only did Yorkshire not declare they proceeded to lose five wickets, four of them to Durston who will surely never have taken such cheap wickets, for the addition of 9 runs and the waste of at least twenty minutes of what might prove to be valuable time come Saturday afternoon. All urgency went out of Yorkshire's play, one batsman disappeared into the pavilion before the next emerged stretching the two minute rule to its limit and after a conference with the other batsmen took careful guard. Derbyshire showed how pleased they were to stay in the middle rather than face Yorkshire's attack, strengthened by the appearance of Bresnan released from England duty at Lord's, when with nine wickets down shin pads were sent for and the nominated short leg put them on in the time that might be taken to dress the chorus in 'The Pirates of Penzance'. All this taxed the patience of the crowd to the limit.What was Gale thinking of?

At last Sidebottom gave Durston the fourth of his cut price victims and the league leaders found themselves with  eleven overs  to face before close. At Trent Bridge, Durham's Graham Onions also released by England this morning, had a most remarkable day taking nine Notts' wickets and running out the tenth with a direct throw form deep square leg. Bresnan's contribution was not quite so dramatic but he will feel his dash up the M1 was worthwhile for, with the last ball of the day he had Madsen lbw to leave Derbyshire 28 for 1 and the game nicely set up. Alas it is impossible to put anything but the most dismissal prospect on tomorrow's weather and even if Saturday is a fine day Friday's rain may condemn the match to a draw. Let's hope nobody is saying at close of play on Saturday 'If only we had had another twenty minutes!