Yorkshire's season mirrored in last match.

 Posted by Tony Hutton

Like John Winn we were present at Trent Bridge for day one of Yorkshire's last match of the 2021 troubled cricket programme and stayed over for day two of a game which somehow seemed to mirror the whole season for them. Our vantage point was at the opposite side of the ground, unable to face the risk of vertigo on the steep slopes of the Ratcliffe Road stand, but my travelling companion was able to identify the 'Lower Ure Valley four' with the aid of her binoculars, as well as many others of the visiting Yorkshire contingent.

Trent Bridge

It later emerged that Adam Lyth would indeed have been dropped, due to his recent poor form, had Ballance been fit to play. It is a sad fact of life that there are few natural captains around in the first class game and although Patterson has done a good job, leading by example with his metronomic and accurate bowling, he is not a natural or inspirational leader. The search for a successor or even a capable deputy goes on. Hard to criticise Coad, being thrown in at the deep end, but having put Nottinghamshire in on a green wicket we felt that Yorkshire's bowlers did not really take advantage of the conditions on day one.

Joe Clarke, who has perhaps had a mixed sort of career since joining Notts from Worcester, worked hard for his century which held the home side's first innings together, although as John Winn mentioned two dropped catches by Lyth did somewhat help him. He was well supported by young Joey Evison with a fluent maiden half century. Good to see him, and earlier in the season Lyndon James, as two local products making the grade in a side packed full of imports from elsewhere.

Nottingham missed out on the vital extra bonus point early on day two and we had an ominous feeling that disaster beckoned for Yorkshire's batting line up when their innings began. Luke Fletcher, despite his bulky appearance, has had a wonderful season already being the leading wicket taker in Championship cricket. This pitch was made for him and he was soon able to brush aside Hill, Kohler-Cadmore and Fraine, with Brett Hutton despatching the out of form Lyth to leave Yorkshire in disarray at 21-4.

Luke Fletcher.

There was no respite when Evison joined the attack and showed his ability with the ball to add to his display with the bat. The ball was moving around quite a lot throughout the Yorkshire innings as shown by the number of times wicket keeper Moores had to dive across to take the ball. Evison ran through the middle order removing Brook, Thompson, Revis and Bess to produce the remarkable figures of 4-13 from seven overs.  So after being dismissed for 73 Yorkshire were asked to follow on and thoughts of another two day finish were in the air after Essex had seen off Northants very early in the morning.

Joey Evison

However in this season of ups and downs for Yorkshire cricket it was time for something more positive to appear. This it duly did with some hard graft from Lyth, obviously determined to play himself back into form, and some confident batting from George Hill who was going very well until an unfortunate run out. Lyth called him for a quick single, but the substitute fielder Calvin Harrison, with a quick reaction and direct hit on the stumps ran Hill out. Harrison only signed for Notts after success against them for Oxford University earlier this season and then found himself with a 'Hundred' contract with the Manchester Originals.

The pair had put on 65 and Kohler-Cadmore continued the recovery with 49 at which stage the score had reached 168-1 which was quite an achievement after the first innings debacle. The loss of two wickets just before the close rather took the shine off the hard work, but nevertheless play would continue into the third day, with thoughts of an outside chance of a Yorkshire victory if they could substantially add to their total.

On day three Adam Lyth completed a splendid century and went on to make 153 before being the seventh man out caught behind of Evison with the total on 347-7. He received valuable support from Brook, Thompson and Revis but the all out total of 396, good as it was, only left Notts with a modest target of 174 to win. Lyth capped his day with a slip catch to dismiss Hameed before the close, but 42-1 overnight gave Yorkshire only the slightest chance of an unlikely victory.

Adam Lyth.

As expected Nottinghamshire completed a five wicket victory by early afternoon today (day four) with Slater on 79 not out after an innings of 54 from Ben Duckett. Acting captain Ben Coad added three more wickets but by and large Yorkshire were always going to lose the game after their poor first innings performance. So a season of peaks and troughs came to an end and it will be interesting to see whether changes of personnel in terms of both coaching and playing staffs occur during the months ahead.

In the meantime we have enjoyed the benefits of live streaming from all the counties during the season, none more so than yesterday's exciting finish at Liverpool where Lancashire had their moment of glory in such a narrow victory over Hampshire, only to be overtaken by worthy champions Warwickshire this afternoon with a convincing win over Somerset at Edgbaston.