Headingley post script

posted by John Winn

The feeling in the Long Room over pre match coffee  at Headingley yesterday was that while it is unusual for teams to get the highest score of the match in the fourth innings, especially in a winning cause, it was not beyond possibility that Hampshire might get the 320 they needed. Support for this came from the idea that well as Coad had bowled on Friday and Saturday it was too much to expect that a young bowler would do as well in the second innings and that Yorkshire might increasingly regret the absence of as many as five injured seamers and the 'resting' Rashid. 'We need early wickets' was the rallying cry as we took our places amongst what seemed like the largest crowd of the three days in the North East Upper  stand.

And early wickets was what we should have had for had Lyth, of all people, dropped one that he had been wearing his pinny would have lodged in the pocket, and Handscomb put down a harder one in the gully, two incidents that should have seen the Hampshire openers back in the pavilion with barely twenty on the board. 71 runs later Carberry holed out at long leg but another 69 were added before the third wicket fell. Two solid partnerships and  two more to come and with only Ervine failing, consistency right down the order saw Hants' needing only one over of the extra half hour.  Coad drew the short straw in being asked to bowl it and a four and a six saw us on our way at 6:30.

It would be churlish not to mention Yorkshire's mid afternoon moments, especially a caught and bowled by Coad and an even better one by Bresnan which changed  the mood of my texts from one  which at 14:40 included the word 'despondent' but by tea time spoke of lifted spirits albeit with Hants slight favourites. Alas that was as good as it got. Balance had done all that could be expected of him with the bat I think he might have gambled a little more with his bowlers. Patterson bowled 39 overs in the match but remained wicketless, but his parsimony was preferred to Rafiq's spin.

As I left the ground it occurred to me that defeat meant that Yorkshire had now lost three successive championship matches. A check in my shiny new Wisden revealed my suspicion to be correct, when did they last happen? Yorkshire now face three away trips starting at Egbaston on Friday, to face a Bears team that will be smarting from their stuffing at The Oval.  Tony has drawn attention to  the cockamamie fixture list that means that it will be almost eight weeks before championship cricket returns to Headingley. My next cricket will be at The Riverside on Friday when Durham start the task of paying off a 48 point deficit with probably the toughest opponents, Notts, as visitors. After which it will be June before there is further championship cricket at Chester le Street, but in that interval Durham will have visited Bristol, Hove and Swansea, very convenient for the travelling supporter.