No time for frailty as Yorkshire attempt to chase down Durham

JASON GILLESPIE’s message prior to the third day’s play at the Riverside was simple.

“It’s very important that we start well,” declared Yorkshire’s first team coach. “Whether or not we get wickets is irrelevant.

“I want us to have a really good attitude and our body language to be strong in the field.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Putting that pressure on will create opportunities for us.”

Gillespie was speaking after a second day in which Yorkshire’s batting frailties once more resurfaced.

Bowled out for 96 in their opening game of the season against Sussex, a position from which they never recovered en route to an innings defeat, Yorkshire were dismissed for 177 in reply to Durham’s first-innings 237, a performance Gillespie called “unacceptable”.

Yorkshire’s body language seemed good enough yesterday (if the players sometimes had their hands in their pockets, it was only to keep warm) and they tried their utmost in difficult conditions, with a vicious cross-wind blowing across the ground.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

But they struggled for penetration on an increasingly placid pitch as Durham moved to 
275-4, a lead of 335, before declaring with seven overs remaining, Yorkshire reaching 17-0 as they eye what would be the fourth-highest run-chase in their history.

Durham are in the box seat but both sides will feel they can win this game, providing the weather holds.

Rain and bad light claimed 11 overs yesterday evening and the forecast is for more poor weather this morning, with conditions improving from lunchtime.

With 58 overs having also been lost on day two, an appreciable amount of time has already been taken out of the match – time in which Durham could have put themselves far out of sight.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

As it was, Paul Collingwood’s declaration kept alive the prospect of a positive result and dangled a carrot to Yorkshire as they seek to justify all the pre-season optimism emanating from LS6.

Having been reduced to 
112-7 on the opening day, Durham have made all the running in this match, aided initially by a Phil Mustard-inspired recovery that saw them more than double their total from that position.

Yorkshire’s collapse from 96-3 to 177 all out in response was insipid to say the least and, coming hot on the heels of the Sussex collapse, would have done nothing to allay the concerns of those who felt the club went into the season a batsman short following the retirement of Anthony McGrath.

A positive performance from the top-order today would do much to reduce those fears and help restore confidence in general – particularly given the challenging prospect of facing Graham Onions, who captured 5-63 in the first innings.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

In that respect it will be as much a test of character as class, a quality Yorkshire have not lacked since Gillespie returned to the club prior to last season.

Both qualities were certainly in evidence yesterday from Mark Stoneman, the 25-year-old Durham left-hander who top-scored with 109, his fifth first-class hundred.

Stoneman, an elegant and uncomplicated opening batsman, averages just 27 over a six-year career but one would never have guessed as he coped competently with the Yorkshire attack.

He offered just one chance – and it was a costly one from Yorkshire’s point of view as wicketkeeeper Jonny Bairstow spilled a regulation catch off Tim Bresnan when the batsman had only 11 to his name.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Whether Bairstow was affected by the vicious cross wind it was hard to say; what was clear was that Stoneman made the most of the reprieve as he and Keaton Jennings recorded Durham’s first century opening partnership in the Championship since a game against Somerset at Taunton last May.

The pair batted throughout the morning to add 84 and were not separated until the score had reached 123, Jennings making a present of his wicket when he flashed at Bresnan and was athletically caught by Bairstow, diving to his left.

Bresnan struck again four balls later when Will Smith edged to Joe Root at third slip, but Stoneman and Dale Benkenstein enforced Durham’s superiority with a stand of 68 in 19 overs.

It was Durham old boy Liam Plunkett who finally removed Stoneman, well caught low at slip by Gary Ballance, and Plunkett was perhaps the biggest positive to emerge for Yorkshire on a day played mostly in glorious sunshine.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Expensive in the first innings but economical in the second, Plunkett struck again to have Ben Stokes caught behind.

That came just moments after Stokes had been dropped by Phil Jaques at deep mid-wicket off Adil Rashid, who bowled better than figures of 0-81 from 22 overs would suggest, with the leg-spinner turning his googly appreciably.

Benkenstein advanced to 61 and Collingwood to 36 before the declaration came, Joe Root and Adam Lyth surviving a tricky period before stumps.

n Yorkshire’s YB40 match against Somerset at Bath on August 15 has been moved to Taunton owing to concerns about the pitch at the Recreation Ground.

There is a rugby 7s event scheduled a few days beforehand and the pitches overlap, prompting Somerset officials to take the decision to move the game to their county base.