Durham v Yorkshire: Absence of Sayers noticed as Yorkshire struggle

IF there was one man you wanted against the country’s best bowling attack in overcast conditions at Chester-le-Street yesterday it was surely Joe Sayers.

Yorkshire’s decision to drop him – controversial beforehand – looked even more contentious come close of play.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but what Yorkshire would have given for several hours of Sayers elasticity.

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Instead they struggled to 170-9 against the Championship leaders on a rain-hit second day.

Sayers was axed after two failures in the previous Championship match against Sussex, when he made 6 and 0.

But in the previous game against Lancashire he top-scored in both innings with 53 and 75, raising his first-class average this summer to 40.81.

Although those figures were massaged by runs against Durham University, Sayers could consider himself highly unfortunate.

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He was also jettisoned after the opening match at Worcestershire following his courageous return from Post-Viral Fatigue Syndrome.

The visitors recalled Adam Lyth to open in the North East and kept faith with veteran batsman Anthony McGrath at No 3.

Both men passed 1,000 runs last summer but have struggled this year – Lyth has produced only cameos, while McGrath has been hampered by injuries.

After Yorkshire lost the toss, which did not help their cause, Lyth fell to the sixth ball of the day when he pushed forward to Graham Onions and was caught low at second slip.

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McGrath followed to the 24th ball of the morning, lbw playing around a delivery from Callum Thorp as Yorkshire slipped to 9-2.

Lyth has now made 336 runs in 15 Championship innings this summer at 24, while McGrath has managed 135 in nine innings at 15.00. Both will be hoping for a big score in the second innings to finally get their season under way.

After the opening day was lost to rain, play got going on time yesterday following the sterling efforts of the Durham ground staff.

The home side, for whom Steve Harmison returned after injury, had won their previous three Championship games by an innings and it was easy to see why as they set about Yorkshire.

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Onions and Thorp produced splendid opening spells, Thorp conceding just six runs in his first six overs as he made particularly good use of the helpful conditions.

Yorkshire fell to 28-3 when Andrew Gale was squared-up by a ball from Onions and caught at third slip, with Durham’s catching impressive throughout.

Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow played promisingly to lift the total to 66 – in the process scoring at five-and-a-half runs an over – before rain drove the players from the field at 12.20pm.

Play did not resume until 4.30pm – and it seemed a huge slap in the face to the 500 or so spectators present that the Durham bowlers were practising on the square for a full half-hour beforehand.

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If the square was fit enough for the bowlers to practice on, why was it not fit enough for the action proper?

So much for county cricket the entertainment industry.

Root fell to the sixth delivery after the re-start, brilliantly caught low to his left at third slip by Scott Borthwick off Harmison.

The former England pace man struck again in his next over when he induced Gary Ballance to chop into his stumps, Ballance looking to play the ball away from his body out on the off-side.

Yorkshire crashed to 90-6 in the 26th over when Bairstow drove loosely at Onions and was caught at first slip.

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Bairstow had appeared unsettled by a delivery from Onions just beforehand which did not get up as he expected, his dismissal ending a fluent contribution of 38 that contained eight boundaries.

One sensed a wicket could fall any moment, but Durham suddenly appeared to get over-excited and did not bowl particularly well to the seventh-wicket pair of Adil Rashid and Rich Pyrah.

There was too much short stuff and too much full stuff, interspersed with balls the batsmen defended with good technique.

Harmison, in particular, produced a mixed bag, serving up several balls to Rashid which positively begged to be cut to the boundary.

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Rashid took full advantage and played in positive style for 47 before being caught down the leg-side off Paul Collingwood after adding 58 with Pyrah in 16 overs.

Pyrah was run-out three balls later following a crazy mix-up with Ajmal Shahzad, who cut a delivery from Ian Blackwell to Scott Borthwick at point, Pyrah beaten by the throw as he ran to the danger end.

Yorkshire slid to 152-9 when Ryan Sidebottom was caught behind trying to leave a ball from Collingwood, but Shahzad and Steve Patterson took Yorkshire to within 30 runs of a first batting bonus point.