Gale's decision just justified.

posted by John Winn

How nice to be able to journey to Headingley with full confidence that we would have  a warm sunny day and much of the same for the rest of the week on a day when there were 8 championship matches starting, all at the same time and that by the end of the week the only outstanding issue might be who accompanies Derbyshire into Division 1.

Yorkshire welcomed a weakened and relatively inexperienced Glamorgan side to Headingley in the knowledge that a victory would leave promotion in their own hands when they travel to Chelmsford for the final game next week. A good crowd had assembled for the 10:30 start, although it may be that September's earlier timing had caught one or two out, but with high pressure in charge there was surprise that Gale had asked Glamorgan to bat. Given that no championship game at Headingley this season has wielded anything but a draw it did not seem unreasonable to me that the skipper's thinking was that if there was anything in the pitch for the bowlers it might be found today rather than on Friday. When Glamorgan were 103 without loss at lunch and at least two catches having gone down,  I gradually distanced myself from this theory but returned to it when wickets began to fall in the afternoon.

The East Stand 'think thank' had had no doubt that the decision to field was the wrong one but at 156 for 3 I asked what was the maximum Glamorgan score that would justify Gale's decision to field. 250 was the consensus and at 236 for 8 this looked pretty good  but the last two wickets dragged it up to 272 and left Root and Lyth an awkward six overs to the close but they reduced the deficit by twenty and will take guard again at 10:30 tomorrow.

Looking at the close of play scores in the other games the need for Yorkshire to win this game is readily apparent for Hampshire are well on top against Essex while the Kent Derbyshire game is evenly balanced. Gale's men won't need advice from me or anybody else as to the importance of tomorrow's cricket.

Just in case you are interested, in the Second XI Championship final at Grace Road at the end of the first day Leicester II were all out for 360 and Kent II 0 for 0 in reply. If you wish to follow the remaining three days there is good coverage on The Foxes' website.