Jaques arrives with century as Yorkshire look to force victory

TO his Yorkshire team-mates Phil Jaques goes by the nickname “Mr Cricket”, the monicker famously attached to his fellow Australian, Michael Hussey.

“When Phil was last at Yorkshire he was one of those who’d still be on the bowling machine when they were trying to turn the lights off at night,” remembered Andrew Gale, the Yorkshire captain, when he looked ahead to Jaques’s return for this match against Essex.

“Phil likes to hit a lot of balls and has a tremendous appetite for making big scores.

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“He gets massive runs, consistent hundreds, which is what we need in our side right now.”

As if to validate his captain’s commendation, Jaques scored 126 on his comeback innings yesterday – almost seven years after he last pulled on a Yorkshire shirt.

His efforts helped the home side to 246 after they won the toss, with play finally starting on the second morning after the opening day was lost to rain.

Without Jaques’s contribution, made from 162 balls with 21 fours and a six, Yorkshire would have failed to reach a single batting point after being 184-2 at one stage.

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That they gained just one batting point owed much to the bowling of Tymal Mills, a 19-year-old left-armer from Dewsbury, who took a career-best 4-62 against the county of his birth.

Mills, playing only his sixth first-class match, served up a veritable assortment of good balls and bad, as befitted a teenager still making his way. The pace was sizzling, the radar scattergun: Mills conceded almost five runs per over but there is no doubt that he has something about him.

Only “Mr Cricket” played him with comfort, defending the good balls and dispatching the bad.

Otherwise, a batting line-up that has one of the longest tails in Yorkshire’s history, with Ajmal Shahzad the No 9, struggled to build on a promising platform, with the old failing of wickets falling in clusters once again rearing its ugly head.

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Essex, however, were equally culpable. Amid the watery sunshine of early evening, they lost two wickets in two overs to slip from 18-0 to 24-2 and then three during one memorable over from Steve Patterson, who was preferred to Iain Wardlaw.

He struck with the first, fifth and sixth balls of his third over, the 20th of the innings, as Essex collapsed from 42-2 to 42-5. Ravi Bopara (26) and James Foster (nine) prevented more damage as Essex closed 72-5, all their wickets falling lbw or caught behind.

When Jaques last appeared in Yorkshire’s colours, he scored 2,477 first-class runs at 61.92.

The 32-year-old was quickly into the action yesterday after Joe Root fell to a bat-pad catch from the fifth ball of the morning from David Masters.

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Jaques attacked aggressively when the opportunity arose and defended resolutely against the metronomic Masters, who was Essex’s best bowler in the morning session.

Bowling with purpose from the Kirkstall Lane end, Masters was as accurate as a Swiss timepiece and twice as reliable, conceding only 15 runs in 11 overs before the interval with six maidens.

With Joe Sayers dropping anchor in typical style, having been fortunate not to have been run-out on 10 by Billy Godleman’s throw from point after Jaques pushed a single, Yorkshire rebuilt with relative ease.

Jaques top-edged a six off Mills but, for the most part, looked well in control, reaching his half-century from 67 balls in 86 minutes.

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Sayers’s vigil, though, ended right on the stroke of lunch. Seeking to withdraw his bat from a short ball by Mills, he edged into the hands of wicketkeeper Foster.

Masters’s figures were dented after the break when Jaques twice struck him for three consecutive fours.And with Gale playing well at the other end, a big Yorkshire total seemed in the offing.

Mills nearly decapitated Gale with a beamer from the Rugby Stand end that drew a cry of “Mills, you’re a disgrace to Dewsbury,” from an irate spectator in the North East Stand.

Gale, who also hails from the town, regained his composure to crack Greg Smith for four boundaries in one over before his dismissal to a catch at short-leg off the off-spinner Tom Westley triggered a sudden collapse.

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Jonny Bairstow was held in the slips, Gary Ballance caught on the hook, Anthony McGrath lbw shouldering arms and Adil Rashid caught at mid-off as Yorkshire subsided to 231-7.

Jaques then fell to a slip catch off Chambers, Shahzad was caught behind off Masters and Patterson went lbw to Chambers, Yorkshire losing their last eight wickets for 62 runs in 17 overs.

However, inspired by Sidebottom and the incisive Patterson, Yorkshire hit back in spirited manner. They will hope that an indifferent weather forecast for today and tomorrow does not ruin their bid to force a result.