Lyth helps Yorkshire maintain status quo with Kent

IF you were picking a Yorkshire opening batsman to take Andrew Strauss’s place in the Test side purely on form, you would have to plump for Adam Lyth.

The 24-year-old Whitby-born left-hander is the man of the moment, the player who appears in the most impressive touch.

Of course it is Joe Root, the 21-year-old right-hander, who is being tipped to replace Strauss for the India tour, for which the squad is due to be announced this week.

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Root has had a good summer and deserves his chance, but Lyth’s international ambitions could one day be rekindled.

As Yorkshire continued their quest to clinch Championship promotion, scoring 284-8 on the opening day of their final match from which they need 19 points to guarantee elevation, they were indebted to a typically impressive performance from Lyth.

Without his top score of 67, made from 69 balls with 11 fours, Yorkshire would have fallen short of a par score after winning the toss in the Chelmsford sunshine.

As it was, and boosted by a gritty unbeaten 49 from Azeem Rafiq, they posted an apparently competitive total and one which has thus far given them two batting points.

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Elsewhere, leaders Derbyshire, one point ahead of Yorkshire going into this game, claimed three bowling points by dismissing Hampshire for 272, while third-placed Kent, five points behind Yorkshire at start of play, are still five points behind after picking up two bowling points as opponents Glamorgan made 334-8 at Cardiff.

Lyth, who still harbours hopes of playing for England, pronounced himself pleased with Yorkshire’s position.

“We were struggling a bit on 166-6 but we fought back well and if we can get another 30 or 40, it’s a good first innings total,” he said.

“The odd ball is digging in and the odd ball is keeping low, which could be good news for us later in the match.

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“From my own point of view, it was nice to contribute with a few runs, although it would have been nicer still to have gone on and got three figures.

“I feel as though I’m playing well at the moment and I’ve got a bit of confidence back into my game, and I think it helps if you know you’re going to be in the side for a period of time.”

Since Yorkshire pitched up at Leicester at the end of July, Lyth has been in coruscating form.

He struck a career-best 248 not out at Grace Road, while his five Championship innings prior to yesterday were 93, 0, 40, 95 and 50.

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After Root was dismissed for a third-ball duck, lbw to Graham Napier in the day’s second over, Lyth started here like a house on fire too.

He put Reece Topley to the sword with some dazzling drives and, before most of a good-sized crowd knew it, had reached a 42-ball half-century with nine fours.

Another big innings looked in the offing but Lyth departed in the 19th over, caught behind trying to leave a short delivery from Napier.

The ball ran off the face of the bat and into wicketkeeper James Foster’s gloves, the bowler extracting plenty of lift from the Hayes Close end.

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Lyth’s innings took him to 700 runs in the Championship this summer at the healthy average of 53.84.

In contrast, Root, who has not reached fifty in nine innings since his 222 not out against Hampshire at Southampton, has made 736 runs at 46 – statistical food for thought, if nothing else.

After Lyth gave Yorkshire a solid foundation, the visitors lost their way during an afternoon session in which four wickets went down for 79 runs in 34 overs.

Phil Jaques fell to the third ball after the break, pulling Napier into the grateful hands of long leg, and Yorkshire slipped to 134-4 when Andrew Gale skipped down the track to off-spinner Tom Westley and got a leading edge to cover.

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When Gary Ballance popped a ball to mid-wicket and Anthony McGrath was caught behind down the leg-side, Yorkshire were rocking on 166-6.

But Rafiq and Andrew Hodd helped them out of trouble, adding 58 in 23 overs before Hodd was run-out in calamitous fashion.

It happened like this…

Westley tossed one up from the River end and Hodd was struck on the pad while attempting to sweep. The ball squirmed out to Ryan ten Doeschate in the covers and, after looking for a single that was not there, Hodd and Rafiq engaged in a spot of “yes, no, sorry” before Hodd was run-out trying to get back.

Rafiq, to his credit, put the incident out of his mind, forging another splendid partnership with Ryan Sidebottom.

The pair added 60 in 18 overs before Sidebottom fell to the last ball of the day, caught and bowled by leg-spinner Tom Craddock, but Yorkshire could be satisfied with their first day’s work.