Leicestershire v Yorkshire CCC: Hosts have the better of day one on two-tone pitch
WHAT’s brown at both ends and green in the middle?
It sounds like a bad joke but the answer is the pitch prepared for this game, as curious a surface as one can recall.
On the one hand it was like something you see in parched August, with the brown, sandy ends offering promise for the spinners.
On the other the green centre resembled a seamer, suggesting some help for the quicker bowlers.
That it had been prepared with the aim of forcing a result was clear, exactly as Anthony McGrath had foreseen.
With Leicestershire winless and bottom of the league, the Yorkshire head coach knew they would be desperate for points to stave off the threat of relegation.
Not that a draw is much use to his side either, albeit for different reasons as they look towards the summit.
It was the hosts, though, who had the better of day one, dismissing Yorkshire for 185 and then reaching 177-3 thanks to some positive batting by Rishi Patel, who made 67 from 72 balls, and Rehan Ahmed, who hit an unbeaten 62 from 85, the balance of power perhaps the direct opposite of what one might have expected.
In warm and sunny conditions, the breeze refreshing and the wispy clouds high, the two-tone surface offered some assistance but not lavishly so, if truth be told.
Yorkshire chose to bat hoping, no doubt, to exploit their decision to go in with two spinners in the game’s fourth innings, with Dan Moriarty picked for the first time this season to partner Dom Bess. The hosts also fielded two slow men - Rehan and Ajaz Patel, the latter having played twice for Yorkshire in 2019, albeit with scant success (combined figures 2-231 from 35 overs).
The clatter of wickets began to the penultimate ball of the day’s fourth over, Will Luxton, the hero at Scarborough last week, lbw to Ben Green as he tried to turn to leg. Sam Whiteman pushed back a return catch to Josh Davey in the seventh over, the bowler taking it tumbling to his left, and it felt as if a wicket might fall at any moment as Ben Green, in particular, probed away manfully.
The Leicestershire captain gave James Wharton a testing examination, with several close shaves and tight leaves as the ball narrowly missed the off stump, and he picked up his second scalp with the score on 45 when Adam Lyth - having made eight runs in a little over an hour - nibbled at one and was caught behind. That became 46-4 in the next over when Alex Green, no relation to his skipper, took his maiden first-class wicket on his third appearance, the strapping 19-year-old having Matty Revis edging behind.
Ajaz Patel came into the attack 15 minutes before lunch and Jonny Bairstow helped his first delivery to the fine-leg boundary. So strong was the sunshine that Bairstow was disturbed by the glare off advertising hoardings behind the arm, a problem rectified when some towels and blankets were used to cover the offending spot.
The matter became academic when Bairstow fell in the last over of the session, a bit unlucky to receive a beauty from medium-pacer Joey Evison that moved away and hit the top of off stump. It ended a stand of 43 with Wharton as Yorkshire lunched on 89-5.
Wharton then combined with Hill in a partnership of 42, Wharton advancing to his second fifty of the Championship campaign from 106 balls with eight fours. It was a fighting effort and he was disappointed when he edged behind to give Alex Green his second wicket, swishing his bat in frustration as he left.
Bess arrived to cut his first ball from the same bowler away to the boundary before off-driving the next to the rope for good measure. That was pretty much that, though, before Ben Green smuggled one through his defences.
Yorkshire lost their last three wickets in the space of six balls. Hill, having played well, went back to try to steer Ajaz Patel through third-man and was caught behind for 42 from 76 balls with seven fours.
Hassan Ali fell lbw trying to sweep Rehan, who was so confident that he had pinned Jack White with a full-length delivery first up that he treated the crowd to a celebrappeal that was duly upheld.
Yorkshire were all out inside 55 overs, Ben Green the pick of the bowlers with 3-27 from 17 overs, Alex Green and Rehan both taking two wickets.
Leicestershire began their reply straight after tea, Rishi Patel carrying the fight to the Yorkshire attack. It was a good ploy given the visitors’ low score, although Hassan got rid of Sheridon Gumbs, his partner, lbw in the seventh over.
Patel hoisted Hill’s first ball for six over mid-wicket, struck his second through the offside for four and then lofted his fourth to the mid-off boundary. He was dropped on 30, White failing to cling on at long-leg off Hassan, and again on 60 when Lyth spilled a pretty routine slip chance off Revis.
The latter miss did not prove costly, Patel advancing to Moriarty to be stumped down the leg-side by Bairstow, ending a stand with Rehan of 96 in 99 balls.
Moriarty bowled Lewis Hill off his pad as the hosts slipped to 125-3, but Rehan and Nick Kelly (25) will return on day two with power to add.