Unbeaten Yorkshire are still not firing on all cylinders

Although a draw was enough to take them back into second place, 28 points behind leaders Derbyshire with a game in hand, it could – and perhaps should – have been even better for the promotion-chasing hosts.

The loss of 96 overs to rain and bad light hardly helped, the equivalent of one day’s play, nor the fighting spirit of a Northamptonshire side which improbably batted out the final day.

However, Yorkshire would still have been disappointed not to beat under-strength opponents, although their overall performance was undoubtedly impressive and maintained their unbeaten start to the Championship programme after two victories and five draws.

When bad light ended play on Saturday with 22 overs remaining, Northamptonshire led by 87 runs with four second innings wickets intact.

Although Yorkshire will feel that the elements denied them, Northamptonshire would counter that they could theoretically have set a nuisance target.

Whatever the reality, Yorkshire continue to play well in Championship cricket but not, if truth be told, quite to their maximum capability just yet.

If that is a source of frustration to themselves and their supporters, it is also grounds for optimism given that they are still second in the league despite not having scaled the summit of their skill levels.

Even accounting for the loss of a day’s cricket, Yorkshire were more than capable of winning this one after reducing their opponents to 45-5 on the opening day.

That period of play highlighted everything good about Yorkshire’s bowling; indeed, to watch Steve Patterson, Ryan Sidebottom and Mitchell Starc in full flow, you wondered how many First Division sides would have coped, let alone one of Northamptonshire’s quality.

Although the visitors deserved credit for their subsequent recovery to 253, with a captain’s innings of 79 from Andrew Hall steering them to respectability, Yorkshire would have been disappointed not to turn the screw and eject them for something a little bit smaller.

The home side replied strongly on the back of a fine hundred from Joe Root, his first at Headingley, and although Yorkshire might have pushed on a tad quicker after lunch on day three, when Root’s departure seemed to stall their momentum at a key juncture, a final total of 416 and the acquisition of maximum bonus points for the first time in nearly two years was further confirmation of a batting unit moving in the right direction.

Having claimed one Northamptonshire wicket before stumps and then reduced the visitors to 47-2 half-an-hour into the final day, Yorkshire would still have expected to have the last word before that distinction befell the elements.

Instead, after Stephen Peters played on to Patterson to give Yorkshire their second breakthrough, Kyle Coezter was the only other casualty during Saturday’s morning session in which Northamptonshire scored 77 runs in 30 overs.

Coezter fell to a bat-pad catch by Root off the bowling of Azeem Rafiq, who produced a fine spell before lunch from the Rugby Stand end and more than justified the decision of captain and coach to select him ahead of Adil Rashid.

However, a fourth-wicket stand of 65 in 19 overs between Alex Wakely and Rob White proved that Northamptonshire had no intention of lying down meekly, even if they had moments of luck along the way as the ball occasionally flew off the edge and down through third-man.

Wakely, a 23-year-old former England Under-19 captain, anchored the resistance, marrying solid defence with stylish drives.

The right-hander leant into a lovely cover-driven four off Patterson and then repeated the shot off Rafiq, whom he later launched for a straight six into the Rugby Stand.

However, Rafiq was unlucky on a couple of occasions when attempted big hits landed just out of fielders’ reach, the off-spinner inducing mistakes with clever variations of pace and flight.

Eventually, the stand was broken when White played around a delivery from Patterson that bowled him to leave Northamptonshire 160-4, three runs adrift.

The visitors went in front when Hall turned his second ball from Patterson to the square-leg boundary, followed, moments later, by Wakely going to his fifty with a Chinese cut for four off Starc.

Starc produced some inconsistent material as he continues to find his feet in England but he also bowled the occasional ‘jaffa’, and it was the Australian who claimed the fifth and sixth wickets when he had Hall caught behind and then bowled Wakely.

At that stage, Northamptonshire were 198-6, effectively 35-6, but David Murphy and Con de Lange added 52 in 19 overs before the light held sway.

Yorkshire missed two chances to get de Lange early when Starc dropped him at deep mid-on off Rafiq, who then saw Gary Ballance spill the same player at short-leg from the very next ball.

For Yorkshire, however, it was one of those games.

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