Surrey v Yorkshire: Ballance century sets tone for Ashes winter

TIMING has never been a problem for Gary Ballance; he could hardly have a first-class batting average of 50-plus were that not the case.
Gary Ballance of Yorkshire in actionGary Ballance of Yorkshire in action
Gary Ballance of Yorkshire in action

But the ability to flourish when it matters is a felicitous skill and speaks as much for temperament as technical proficiency.

It would have been all too easy, amid the hype and hullabaloo that has attended his call-up to the England Ashes squad, for Ballance to have fluffed his lines here and fanned national perceptions of a left-field selection.

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Instead, he simply hammered his highest score for Yorkshire – a coruscating 148 that had class and composure written all over it.

Ballance’s innings, which surpassed his previous best of 141 against Nottinghamshire at Scarborough earlier this summer, could not be described as a warning shot to Australia; after all, this is Surrey we are talking about, a team rock-bottom of the County Championship – and not without reason.

But as a demonstration of Ballance’s fortitude and the likelihood that he will not be fazed by the step up to the higher grade, it was an opportune exhibition that will jump out from newspaper scorecards this morning from Leeds to Land’s End and all points between.

Ballance knew the eyes of the nation would be on him – if not in the confines of a sparsely-populated Kia Oval then at least in the wider sense – and he neither baulked nor blushed at the attention.

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In fact, he appeared to relish it in his own unpretentious way, scoring with a style that suggests he has no intention of going to Australia simply to get some nice camera shots of Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The more parochially important business at hand – that of Yorkshire’s desire to build on a runners-up finish with their eighth Championship victory of the season – was less favourably enacted, Surrey responding to the visitors’ first innings 434 with 172-1, a performance of unusual resilience and resolve.

After Yorkshire were dismissed on the stroke of lunch, as though first team coach Jason Gillespie had bellowed from the dressing room balcony “Food’s ready, lads”, Yorkshire were held up by two sessions of wholly unexpected defiance.

Rory Burns, the 23-year-old left-hander and Dominic Sibley, the 18-year old right-hander, added 171 for the first wicket, rare riches in a season of relegation disappointment.

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Burns, compact and diminutive, crouched at the crease and worked the ball around with flexible wrists, while Sibley, strapping and sentinel-like, anchored with aplomb in only his third first-class match.

Yorkshire bowled 65.3 wicket-less overs before Burns threw it away five minutes before stumps, chasing after a wide ball from Steve Patterson and edging behind after scoring 82 from 195 balls with nine fours and a six.

Sibley ended unbeaten on 81 from 203 balls with 10 fours having been dropped on eight, Adam Lyth celebrating his 26th birthday in unwanted manner by spilling a fast chance away to his left off Ryan Sidebottom when the score was 25 in the 11th over.

Otherwise, Yorkshire’s hopes of running through the hosts and perhaps even catching sight of their second innings before the close were thwarted as the match took a turn not many had predicted. On another misty morning in south-east London, albeit with visibility nowhere near as bad as it had been on day one, Yorkshire resumed on 316-6, with Ballance on 72 and Adil Rashid 14.

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Ballance immediately rocked back on his heels to cut Matt Dunn to the boundary in the pace bowler’s opening over from the Vauxhall End, while Rashid flashed a flurry of offside fours off the labouring Tim Linley.

As pale sunlight stabbed through the murk, as though God had turned his torch on to half-beam, Yorkshire batted with what the coaches like to call “positive intent”.

A fourth batting point was soon pocketed as the visitors reached 368-7 by the 110-over cut-off point, Rashid having fallen at the same total when he was trapped lbw for 43 by Tom Jewell after adding 72 with Ballance in 20 overs.

Inexorably, imperiously, Ballance moved towards his century but might have been dismissed on 94 when left-arm spinner Zafar Ansari, bowling from the Pavilion End, spun one back towards the pads, Ballance clipping firmly to short-leg where the ball flew into Burns’s hands and straight back out again.

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It was a tough chance – one of those that either sticks or does not – and Ballance made the most of his reprieve by going to his fourth Championship hundred of the summer from 194 balls to complement seven half-centuries.

Sidebottom succumbed when he nibbled at one from Dunn and was caught behind, Ballance eventually holing out off Ansari on the mid-wicket rope.

Three balls later, Jack Brooks was gone and the innings was over, the last man edging behind off Ansari, who claimed 4-70.

Yorkshire’s total was the ninth time this season they had passed 400 in their first innings, a level of consistency that speaks for itself.

Burns and Sibley put the pitch into context, their fighting stand – in the context of a thoroughly wretched Surrey season – apparently coming about six months too late.