Lyth and Lees star again as Yorkshire triumph

ADAM LYTH and Alex Lees continued their remarkable love affair with Wantage Road, the Yorkshire opening batsmen helping their team to a six-wicket win with a magnificent stand of 195.
Yorkshire's Alex Lees.Yorkshire's Alex Lees.
Yorkshire's Alex Lees.

The partnership, which followed their stand of 375 here in the County Championship in June, the fourth-highest for any wicket in the club’s history, helped Yorkshire to their second victory in three Royal London One-Day Cup games.

Lees top-scored with 102 from 92 balls with 14 fours and a six, his maiden List A hundred in his 11th appearance, while Lyth contributed 84 from 88 deliveries with nine fours.

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It was not quite a county record – Andrew Gale and Jacques Rudolph added an unbroken 233 for the first-wicket in the one-day league tournament against Essex at Chelmsford in 2010 – but it was a memorable exhibition after Yorkshire’s bowlers had restricted Northamptonshire to 209-7 in a game reduced by rain to 38 overs per side.

Bare statistics scarcely did justice to the two left-handers, who are continuing the proud tradition of Yorkshire opening batsmen stretching back into the mists of time.

Their strokeplay was savage, their running between the wickets electrifying, and the understanding between them almost telepathic.

Although the quality of opposition had to be taken into account, with Northamptonshire providing a predictable pick-me-up after Yorkshire lost their previous 50-over game to Gloucestershire, that took nothing away from the skill on show.

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The only pity was that both fell with the finish line in sight, Yorkshire losing four wickets for 14 runs in a slightly surreal conclusion to the game.

Lees was first to go with 15 runs needed, caught in the cover area off a leading edge as he tried to work the off-spin of Matthew Spriegel into the leg-side.

He was followed by Kane Williamson five runs out, the New Zealander bowled by left-arm spinner Graeme White.

When the scores were level, Lyth drove off-spinner James Middlebrook to Spriegel at cover and Jack Leaning hit Middlebrook’s next ball to Spriegel at mid-wicket.

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But Gale hit the winning runs when he drove White to the mid-on boundary – and then pronounced himself pleased with his team’s performance.

“We had a bit of a wobble at the end but we dominated 80-90 per cent of the game,” said the Yorkshire captain.

“I still think there are areas we can improve, but it was a good day at the office.

“The two opening batsmen were brilliant – Northants must be sick of the sight of them.”

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In muggy conditions, Gale put Northamptonshire into bat and they soon fell to 17-2.

Tim Bresnan struck with the fourth ball of the match when Stephen Peters wafted outside off stump and was caught behind, and he should have had a wicket with his next ball too only for the normally reliable Lyth to drop Kyle Coetzer at second slip.

Northamptonshire’s second wicket fell to their old boy Jack Brooks, who had Coetzer caught behind off an inside-edge.

Richard Levi, the hard-hitting South African, and Adam Rossington, a talented 21-year-old, stabilised the innings with a stand of 73 in 13 overs.

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Levi lofted Steve Patterson and Rich Pyrah for powerful straight boundaries, while Rossington played confidently all around the ground.

With the total at 90-2 in the 17th over, however, Levi rather gave it away when he tried to late-cut a ball from Patterson that was too close to him, Hodd claiming his third catch, low to his right.

Northamptonshire were 99-3 at the halfway stage – a useful platform, but nothing more than that.

Rossington found another ally in Ben Duckett, the 19-year-old wicketkeeper who had helped Northamptonshire to an opening night win at Headingley in the T20 Blast.

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The diminutive left-hander showed his power by pulling Patterson for six and then cutting Bresnan viciously to point, where Pyrah somehow got a hand on a chance only in the loosest sense of the word, the fielder requiring treatment to his hand.

With the first powerplay reduced from 10 overs to seven, and the second from five overs to four, Northamptonshire looked set for a useful score when the second one produced 35 runs for no wickets, leaving them 163-4 after 28.

But Rossington swept Adil Rashid to backward square-leg to fall for the top score of 75, ending a second successive stand of 73 in 13 overs, and Duckett then fell for 45 just four overs out when he pulled Pyrah tamely to deep mid-wicket.

White sliced Pyrah to deep-extra cover, Spriegel lobbed Pyrah’s next ball to long-on, and Yorkshire bowled well at the death, Northamptonshire losing 3-30 in the last five overs, Pyrah ending with 3-50.

Yorkshire return to Royal London One-Day Cup action tomorrow when they play Worcestershire at Headingley (10.30am).

Scorecard: Page 24.