While Yorkshire's first team were battling away against Surrey and the sea fret at Scarborough the Yorkshire second eleven were taking on Leicestershire in a three day championship game at Clifton Park, York. Of course with the majority of Yorkshire's supporters away on the coast the atmosphere here was quiet and peaceful - a sea of tranquillity one could say. Perfect weather yet again of course and the Second Eleven handbook again much in evidence trying to identify all the visiting players.
Yorkshire fielded a strange looking side with no recognised batsmen at all. They fielded three wicket keepers including the soon to retire Andrew Hodd as an opening batsman, along with all rounder Rafiq as the other. The other two keepers being Academy captain Ben Birkhead and trialist from MCC Young Cricketers Saf Imtiaz, who is possibly the best batsman in the team. The rest were all specialist bowlers or all rounders.
Leicester won the toss and batted with most of the few spectators in the shade at the scoreboard end of the ground. Leicester soon lost two quick wickets but after that took full advantage of the batsman friendly conditions. Yorkshire's attack showed little variation with six seam bowlers which could have been seven, if Matthew Waite had been able to bowl, and just one spinner in Karl Carver.
In fact the third wicket did not go down until just before lunch when Wells was bowled by Carver, after a fifty partnership with Aadil Ali, who was dominating the innings and went to his century later in the afternoon. The best part of the day was his partnership with Zak Chappell, another bowler who was being played as a batsman. They put on a hundred partnership and Chappell struck a few very big sixes in the process. After Chappell was out Ali went to his century in spectacular fashion with two successive sixes before he was out for 114.
Leicestershire declared just before the close and reduced Yorkshire to 11-2, with both temporary openers dismissed by opening bowler Funnell who failed to re-appear the following day due to injury. We were not present on day two, enjoying the delights of Burnopfield and Riverside in County Durham just for a change of scene. However we were back again for the third day which at one stage seemed as if it would not be needed.
Yorkshire did manage to recover from a disastrous start to day two, when they were 27-4 at one stage and thanks to good batting by young Tom Loten with 50, opening bowler Wainman with 49 together with good support from Barnes and last man Carver, managed an all out total of 253. After that the bowlers did really perform and reduced Leicester to 109-7 at the end of day two which was 231 ahead.
So day three looked perfectly poised for a good finish if only Yorkshire could take the last three wickets quickly. This proved rather difficult as Mike in particular and Dickinson and Ahmed all stuck around for quite a while before two late wickets from Ed Barnes brought the innings to an end before lunch for 170. This left Yorkshire with a winning target of 293, which seemed probably beyond them due to the lack of specialist batsmen.
Of course the pundits, including myself, were proved totally wrong as Yorkshire cruised to a remarkably easy victory with everyone, apart from first innings hero Loten, scoring runs. Hodd made a brisk 33 to set the ball rolling and Rafiq pulled out one of his best batting performances for some time with a score of ninety from ninety balls, which included 14 fours. Trialist Imtiaz, who looks a very sound player, also hit 14 fours in an innings of 93 made in a longer time than Rafiq but without taking any risks. Matthew Waite weighed in with 50 not out at the end in partnership with Jordan Thompson as Yorkshire strolled to victory with time and overs to spare.
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