Yorkshire CCC seek enterprising win after attacking declaration

Only seven of them were possible due to the light (not the greatest, surprisingly, on September 28), and Worcestershire closed on 18-2, 145 ahead.

A draw would ensure that Yorkshire could not finish bottom of the league should Gloucestershire, as seems likely, lose at Sussex, so fair play to Masood and the camp for ‘making a game of it’.

If Yorkshire can indeed run through Worcestershire a second time, it should ensure another chance for openers Adam Lyth and Fin Bean to finish the season with 1,000 Championship runs.

Both were left stranded narrowly short in the morning session after Yorkshire had started the day on 24-0.

Lyth had advanced to 11 and 968 runs for the campaign when he was adjudged caught behind off Joe Leach, whose appeal was half-hearted to say the least.

But umpire Steve O’Shaughnessy raised the dreaded finger, drawing the most disbelieving of reactions from Lyth, who first put his hand on his head, then did a double-teapot before walking off shaking his head; the footage would make for the most magnificent ‘GIF’.

Bean had reached 31 and 972 runs for the season when he was bowled through the gate driving at Ben Gibbon, the left-arm seamer.

When Gibbon then had Masood edging to second slip, Yorkshire were teetering a touch at 67-3.

It was 92-4 when James Wharton was bowled by Dillon Pennington on the stroke of lunch, Pennington striking again with a fine delivery that Jonny Tattersall tried to whip through the leg-side as the hosts slipped to 134-5.

Yorkshire’s prospects of reaching 240 to avoid the follow-on seemed in the balance - and remained so despite a fine half-century from George Hill, whose departure lbw to Leach one ball after achieving the milestone left the score 177-6.

But an unbroken stand of 85 between Matty Revis, who made a fine half-century of his own, and Dom Bess, who had nearly made one when the declaration arrived, ensured that Yorkshire rallied well.

Ben Coad struck with the first ball of the Worcestershire second innings when Gareth Roderick slapped to Masood at mid-off, and Matt Milnes had Azhar Ali caught at second slip by Lyth before the light closed in.