Notts CCC v Yorkshire CCC: Bean emerges from shadows with gutsy display
WITHIN a short stroll of the ground where he effectively kickstarted his career, scoring 441 against Nottinghamshire in a second-team match in 2022, Fin Bean gave it a much-needed shot in the arm at Trent Bridge on Monday, striking his first-half century of a challenging campaign.
Bean’s quadruple hundred at the Lady Bay venue - a record for second XI cricket, eclipsing the 322 of one Marcus Trescothick - catapulted the young left-hander to national attention.
A rookie deal at Headingley was followed by a first professional contract in 2023, along with plenty of runs as Adam Lyth’s partner at the top of the order.
Lately, though, the runs have dried up, Bean scoring just 164 of them in seven County Championship matches this season at an average of 13.66 going into this fixture.
Maybe there is something in the air in these parts. The 23-year-old found it to his liking again as he hit an unbeaten 86 from 199 balls with 13 fours, a gutsy display at a time of some struggle.
Only once previously this season had Bean passed 19, the sort of statistic that eats at a batsman.
More importantly, his contribution came at a significant time, Nottinghamshire having lifted their overnight 298-6 to 487 all-out, thereby applying what is known as “scoreboard pressure”.
Sport giveth, and sport taketh away, and Bean did not have it all his own way on another breezy day. From the second ball of the morning, he dropped a catch at mid-wicket when Ishan Kishan pulled Jack White bowling from the Pavilion end.
Kishan, having resumed on 44, duly went to his fifty with a brace of boundaries off Will O’Rourke, continuing to play in the positive manner that seems to characterise Indian batsman/wicketkeepers these days.
An even better shot followed when he charged George Hill and clubbed him for a straight six into the Radcliffe Road end, with more than a hint of Rishabh Pant about the swing of the blade and the flourishing follow-through.
Ishan was 13 short of a well-deserved century when he handed Yorkshire their first wicket of the day after one hour’s play. The ball from Dom Bess, the off-spinner, was short and Ishan dragged it to Hill at mid-wicket, ending a seventh-wicket partnership of 71 with Liam Patterson-White.
When O’Rourke had Farhan Ahmed caught at first slip by Hill, hanging out his bat in wishy-washy manner, Nottinghamshire were 378-8 and in danger of not making optimum use of a first-day platform of 225-3. There followed a ninth-wicket stand of 96 between Patterson-White and Dillon Pennington from 104 balls, the highest of the innings, which frustrated Yorkshire until just after lunch.
Pennington, the strapping 26-year-old pace bowler, had managed only one half-century in his professional career. His second here came from 38 balls and included seven fours and two sixes, the No 10 going on to 61, a career-best effort.
Pennington should have perished for 49 but he was dropped at mid-wicket by Matty Revis off left-arm spinner Dan Moriarty. Moriarty got him in the finish, the tail-ender driving back a simple return.
Like Ishan, Patterson-White was 13 shy of a century when he skied Moriarty towards deep cover, where Hill took his fourth catch of the innings running in from the boundary, giving Moriarty his fourth wicket also. There were four sixes and seven fours in Patterson-White’s 129-ball stay, a sparky contribution, Moriarty finishing with 4-91 from 30.4 overs.
When Lyth fell to the first ball of the Yorkshire reply, caught behind defending at Mohammad Abbas, the visiting fans present on a day of intermittent sunshine could have been forgiven for fearing the worst.
As it was, Bean and James Wharton shared 99 for the second-wicket inside 35 overs, Bean productive against Pennington on the leg-side especially, as well as quick to seize on anything over-pitched by the left-arm spinner Patterson-White.
Bean reached his fifty from 114 balls in exactly two hours, Wharton then falling to a chipped catch to mid-off off Pennington.
Earlier, Pennington was involved in a strange incident when he threw the ball back at Wharton in his follow-through, both unthreateningly and inaccurately, which Russell Warren, the umpire, deemed worthy of five penalty runs under Law 42.2 concerning players’ conduct.
It seemed the harshest of decisions, with Wharton out of his ground albeit in front of his stumps, and Nottinghamshire were further irritated when Warren spoke to Abbas about running on the pitch. What? Me? You’re joking...
Dawid Malan perished in the penultimate over, caught off Patterson-White when an inside-edge hit keeper Ishan and looped to the slip, Freddie McCann. Bean, though, saw it through to the end, within sight now of a sixth first-class hundred.