'We've got to start as we finished' says Yorkshire CCC head coach Anthony McGrath ahead of Pears test
ONLY slightly less remarkable than Tom Banton’s 371 for Somerset at Taunton last week - the fifth-highest score in County Championship cricket - was that opponents Worcestershire escaped with a draw.
But as the 10,000-plus glued to the tense closing stages on the Somerset live stream could testify, this correspondent among them, along with everyone present, escape they did with a Yorkshireman firmly to the fore at the end.
Matthew Waite, the 29-year-old all-rounder, who swapped Headingley for New Road at the end of 2022, batted for over five-and-half hours to finish unbeaten on 87, eating up 319 deliveries in the process.
Tom Hinley, a 22-year-old left-arm wrist spinner who had earlier had Banton caught behind, faced 44 balls himself in making an undefeated five as Worcestershire held out with nine wickets down, surviving exactly 200 overs in their second innings.
It would have felt if not quite a victory for Brett D’Oliveira and his players, then certainly a huge confidence-boost as they head for Headingley and another stiff test.
At the very least it suggested a side brimful of heart if perhaps not the talent of some of their First Division rivals, with Yorkshire of no mood to take them lightly.
“To stay up last year and finish where they did (sixth) shows what a good unit they are,” commented Anthony McGrath, the Yorkshire head coach. “They play well as a team.
“They’re probably a bit more battle-hardened in terms of First Division cricket. I think you’ve got to play the long game, particularly in this division, and not just have flashes of brilliance. They just stay in the game, so we’ve got to make sure that we start well and we’re not trying to chase the game again.”
Starting well was perhaps the key takeaway from Yorkshire’s own Championship opener against Hampshire in Southampton.
Yorkshire started badly, bowled out for 121 inside the first three hours of the game, losing their final five wickets for 11 runs and going down by five wickets inside three days.
“We can’t have sessions like that,” said McGrath. “It’s difficult to recover from, especially with an experienced team like Hampshire, even though we nearly pulled it round.
“You want to be controlling games from the start, so we have to eradicate that.”
“I think everyone’s aware of that. It wasn’t like we were bowled out, overawed and out-classed. It was our own mistakes, so that’s not pleasing, but it’s something we can control.
“It shows the difference between Division Two and Division One, but I think we were very competitive.
“If we can play better, I think we’re going to surprise a few teams.”
On paper, this is a game that Yorkshire would expect to win.
Worcestershire had a poor first innings of their own in Taunton, bowled out for 154 inside 46 overs, Waite contributing the second-top score of 32 not out.
Then, following Kasey Aldridge’s 5-36 for the hosts, Banton’s huge score underpinned a total of 670-7 declared, to which wicketkeeper James Rew supplied 152, in the process sharing a fifth-wicket partnership with Banton that equalled Banton’s score.
The 26-year-old Banton, who has played 21 white-ball matches for England, the most recent a 50-over game against India in Ahmedabad in February, faced just 403 balls during his marathon innings and struck 56 fours to go with two sixes.
The only higher innings in the 135-year history of the Championship are: 501 not out by Brian Lara for Warwickshire against Durham at Edgbaston in 1994; 424 by Archie MacLaren for Lancashire against Somerset at Taunton in 1895; 410 not out by Sam Northeast for Glamorgan against Leicestershire at Leicester in 2022, and 405 not out by Graeme Hick for Worcestershire against Somerset at Taunton in 1988, giving run-drenched Taunton three of the top-five entries.