Yorkshire CCC’s Will Luxton hoping maiden hundred can be the springboard to many more

So it was when Will Luxton went to three figures in the One-Day Cup game against Warwickshire at Rugby on Sunday.

It was heartwarming stuff as the Yorkshireman got there with successive sixes from the off-spin of Rob Yates, Luxton’s passionate punch of the air when the last of them sailed over the leg-side rope and into the crowd echoing the feelings of all those close to him.

It was an innings that emphasised Luxton’s potential, evident since the 21-year-old made his first-team debut three years ago.

He marked that with an innings of 68 against Northamptonshire at Scarborough in the same 50-over competition, rescuing his team from 69-6 to a closing total of 222 before the visitors reached 2-0 in a rain-ruined game.

Another half-century followed in the corresponding fixture the following year, this time at York, when he took Northamptonshire’s attack to the tune of 84, his best prior to Sunday.

Luxton started this year’s 50-over tournament with his third first-team fifty - 83 against Surrey at the Oval - before Sunday’s unbeaten 105, which should be the catalyst for more hundreds in all formats of the game.

“It was a good feeling,” Luxton reflected. “I’ve been wanting to do it (get a hundred) for a while, so it was nice to get over the line.

“You can’t beat the feeling of getting a hundred and walking off with your team having won.

“It was pretty much the perfect game - ‘Hilly’ (George Hill) got a six-fer, ‘Dukey’ (Harry Duke) set the platform (with an innings of 60), and ‘Rev’ (Matthew Revis) played brilliantly (scoring an unbeaten 51 and sharing with Luxton an unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 129 as Yorkshire chased 243 to win with 33 balls left).”

Luxton supplied what Yorkshire had been targeting throughout the tournament - a hundred from one of their top-order players.

Prior to Sunday, their highest individual score in six group games was Luxton’s own 83 in that Surrey curtain-raiser.

Indeed, his own One-Day Cup scores (83, 4, 2, 9, 16, 25 and 105 not out) have been a microcosm of Yorkshire’s campaign - very good in patches, less so in others.

The challenge for every young player, of course, is finding consistency, and Luxton is no different.

“We said all last year and this year that one of the top-four has got to go on and get a hundred not out,” he said.

“I started the competition ok; the pitch at The Oval was a really good cricket pitch, with a bit of pace and bounce in it, but although York and Scarborough are two decent pitches, there’s always a bit in it for the bowlers, and if you get a few decent balls, play bad shots and get out cheaply, you can be under pressure a little bit, which is what happened there.

“To go to a place like Rugby and get runs is nice, and hopefully I can keep getting runs and helping out the team.

“There’s nothing else you can do but keep knocking on the door and try and make the most of your chance when you get it.”

Luxton’s hundred was important for three reasons - first, it kept Yorkshire in with a faint chance of qualification going into their final group game against Glamorgan in Cardiff on Wednesday.

Second, it should do him the world of good in terms of confidence and, third, it compensated for the absence of captain Shan Masood, who is back briefly with Pakistan for their Test series against Bangladesh.

“You can rest on your laurels a bit that Shan’s going to be there and play the way that he plays, getting a fifty or a hundred,” said Luxton.

“We didn’t have ‘Wharts’ (James Wharton) either (through injury against Warwickshire); he’s another who’s been in good form this competition.

“So the young lads have got to step up in those situations.

"We’re all good enough to do it, it’s just stepping up at the right time and using your brain.”

And so the roadshow rolls down to Cardiff.

Yorkshire must beat Glamorgan, the Group B leaders, and then hope for a favour from just up the road by Gloucestershire beating Leicestershire at Bristol.

Any other result in that game would regardless eliminate Yorkshire, who would still need to overturn Gloucestershire’s net run-rate – +0.322 to -0.059, which means Yorkshire need to win heavily and/or quickly.

“We knew we had to win our last two games to even have a chance,” said Luxton, “but the belief in the team is massive.

“The lads have been believing all competition.

"All we can do is go down there and see what happens.”