Kent v Yorkshire: Yorkshire register attacking intent for campaign

DENIED a third successive Championship victory they may have been, but Yorkshire emerged with a creditable draw to maintain their encouraging start to the season.

Andrew Gale's men were set 392 from 90 overs in what would have represented the third-highest winning total in Yorkshire's history.

But after a fine opening stand of 155 in 48 overs between Adam Lyth and Joe Sayers, the visitors gradually ran out of steam as their brave challenge faded in the afternoon sunshine.

When the teams shook hands at 5.55pm, Yorkshire were 300-5 and had played their full part in an engrossing match that ebbed and flowed.

The draw kept them top of Division One, although they have played one game more than Nottinghamshire and Lancashire, who also won their opening two fixtures.

More importantly at this stage of the season, the result showed Yorkshire are not a flash-in-the-pan side but a team with plenty of bottle and backbone.

It is not so long ago that they might have lost such a match in a clutter of wickets, let alone entertained thoughts of a win.

But the confidence generated by victories over Warwickshire and Somerset was evident against a Kent side who also displayed admirable resilience after they lost heavily to Nottinghamshire in their opening game.

For a time on Saturday, it seemed the impossible might just be possible as Yorkshire manoeuvred themselves into a threatening position.

After Lyth (84) and Sayers (61) gave them a splendid platform, Tim Bresnan (70) and Anthony McGrath (55) added 123 in 28 overs after Bresnan was promoted to No 3.

The equation boiled down to 121 needed from the last 15 overs with eight wickets in hand, but McGrath's departure following a confident knock was the first of three wickets to fall in four overs as Yorkshire pursued speedy runs.

With time running out and fielders stationed all around the boundary, the visitors were reluctantly forced to call off the chase.

Martyn Moxon, Yorkshire's director of professional cricket, paid tribute to his players following their gallant performance. "The lads made a terrific effort to try to win the game," said Moxon. "It was important we got off to a good start to give ourselves any chance, and we got that through Joe and Adam, who played fantastically well.

"Sending Brezzy in at No 3 was a sign of intent, but everyone was in agreement that we wanted to give it a go.

"We'd been under pressure going into the last day but batted really well in the fourth innings for the third match in succession."

Although delighted with Yorkshire's start to the season, Moxon is refusing to get carried away.

"I'm very pleased with the way we've gone about our cricket in the first three games and there's a great deal of confidence and belief about the lads," he added.

"But it's early days and there's another 13 Championship games to go, so we need to keep our feet on the ground.

"We're not the finished article by any means and there's still a lot of hard work to be done.

"There've been times during those three games when we've been under the cosh a little bit, but the really pleasing thing is that each time we've fought back well."

When Kent declared 20 minutes into the morning session on 357-8 in their second innings, only two outcomes seemed possible: a home win or a draw.

But Yorkshire had other ideas.

Sayers and Lyth took them into lunch on 77-0 off 26 overs and worked the ball around neatly in the face of some fine spin bowling by James Tredwell, who returned 3-69 from 29 overs.

Lyth had the distinction of scoring Yorkshire's 1,000,000th Championship run when he pulled Azhar Mahmood for four in the direction of the press box, and the 22-year-old was within sight of a second first-class hundred when he was caught behind off James Hockley's off-spin.

Six balls later, Sayers departed when he was lured forward by Tredwell and caught at slip, but Yorkshire continued to push for the win.

Bresnan, playing his final game before flying to the Caribbean for the Twenty20 World Cup along with county team-mate Ajmal Shahzad, got in some practice after being given a license to play his shots.

The all-rounder attacked at every opportunity without being reckless, while McGrath was the perfect foil as he recorded his first Championship half-century since last June.

But the task proved too great when Tredwell had McGrath caught at long-on and Jacques Rudolph caught at long-off, quickly followed by the run-out of Bresnan after Gale attempted to push a quick single.

MAN OF THE MATCH

Tim Bresnan

Claimed seven wickets and scored 70 in the second innings in his final appearance before joining England for the Twenty20 World Cup.