Yorkshire CCC thrashed by bottom club Leicestershire as inconsistency resurfaces
WHEN Yorkshire are good they can beat anyone; when Yorkshire are bad they can lose to anyone.
Having demonstrated the former by beating Somerset and Surrey, they highlighted the latter by losing to Leicestershire, who were without a win in the Championship all season.
Defeat was a major blow to Yorkshire’s hopes of winning the title for the first time since 2015 and left them looking over their shoulder at the relegation picture, given the dense nature of the table.
It was Leicestershire’s first victory in the top flight since 2003, having spent much of their time in Division Two, and their first Championship triumph over Yorkshire at Grace Road since 2002, when they still had Devon Malcolm and Phil DeFreitas leading their attack, Malcolm taking 10 wickets in a five-wicket win and Michael Bevan making 142 and 76 not out against his former club.
How to explain this result from a Yorkshire perspective?
Anthony McGrath, the head coach, has been calling all season for greater consistency - just not of the good one week, bad the next variety.
It felt as if a corner had been turned with the Surrey result especially, backed up by the better of a draw against Warwickshire at Scarborough last week.
But this was a sobering way to sign off as the Championship now breaks until August 20 for the closing stages of the Vitality Blast and the One-Day Cup, Yorkshire going down by an innings and 39 runs with just over a session of the third day left, their third defeat of the programme to go with three draws and two wins, with two of those defeats against sides in the bottom two, emphasising the problem.
On a grey and overcast, sultry sort of morning, with perhaps a couple of hundred spectators dotted around the ground, Yorkshire began the day on 32-2, still 236 short of making Leicestershire bat again.
James Wharton and Sam Whiteman were the men in occupation, but Whiteman fell to the day’s 14th ball, Josh Davey finding the inside edge from the Bennett End and wicketkeeper Ben Cox taking a magnificent one-handed catch, diving full-length to his right.
Wharton was soon clipping Davey for four off his pads, then Matty Revis drove Ben Green to the cover boundary, the fourth-wicket pair settling in well.
But after frustrating Leicestershire for some 50 minutes, Revis drove hard at Alex Green and was caught behind; then the 19-year-old seamer bowled Jonny Bairstow through the gate three balls later as the visitors slid to 70-5.
Ajaz Patel, the former Yorkshire left-arm spinner, was brought on at the Pavilion End and struck with the second delivery of his third over.
It was the important scalp of Wharton, who had looked as likely as anyone to dig in for the sort of score Yorkshire sorely required.
The tall right-hander had grafted for 33 in just over two-and-a-half hours at the crease when he pushed forward at Patel and was bowled between bat and pad, the spinner not realising that the ball had snuck through as he appealed vehemently for lbw.
Soon enough, the sight of a dislodged off bail was pointed out to him and it was smiles all round for the Leicestershire fielders, with Yorkshire in the mire as lunch approached.
They headed into the interval on 121-6, Dom Bess having struck four boundaries in a rapid 21, and George Hill three in an unbeaten 20, but the seventh-wicket pair were separated from the first delivery after lunch, well-flighted from Patel to pin Hill in front.
There was turn and bounce at times for Patel, the odd one gripping and ripping off the surface, and general signs of the pitch becoming worn.
At one point, Patel’s figures read 7-5-3-2. It was a far cry from his record at Yorkshire in 2019, when in two games he took a combined 2-231 from 35 overs.
Hassan Ali decided that the best form of defence was attack, and the Pakistani was already on his way back to the pavilion when Nick Kelly held the skier at mid-wicket that dismissed him from a wild swing at Ben Green.
It was the shot of a man and a team drinking in the last chance saloon, confirmed by a scoreboard that now showed 134-8.
It was deserved reward for Ben Green, the Leicestershire captain who toiled away manfully, and who led the way when Yorkshire were shot out for 185 in their first innings on the opening day, to which Leicestershire replied with 453, Kelly and Rehan Ahmed making fine hundreds.
Bess hung around for an hour and a half to make 40, the spinner falling to a smart slip catch as he tried to cut Patel, then came an incongruous last-wicket stand of 67 between Dan Moriarty and Jack White, Yorkshire’s highest of the match.
Moriarty finished with 51 not out, his first career fifty, from 84 balls with 11 fours, the match ending when Alex Green bowled White.