Yorkshire grind out Roses draw at Old Trafford

A draw at third-placed Lancashire, who had won five of their 11 fixtures and lost only one, and who needed to win to preserve their slim hopes of winning the title, was no mean feat in the grand scheme of things, and a hard-fought effort by a young Yorkshire side.

The youngest member of that side, the 20-year-old opening batsman Fin Bean, who was making his first-class debut, set the tone after Yorkshire were asked to make an unlikely 304 for victory from a minimum of 84 overs after Lancashire declared 35 minutes into the final day, having thrashed 77 runs in 10 overs to reach 280-5 in their second innings.

Bean resisted for exactly two hours in scoring 25 from 82 balls, having batted for two hours and 34 minutes for his first innings 42, a fine effort from the promising left-hander.

Tom Kohler-Cadmore, soon to be of Somerset, then shepherded Yorkshire through to safety along with Will Fraine, the pair sharing 35 in 29.1 overs. Kohler-Cadmore scored 34 from 159 balls and Fraine 18 from 83 deliveries.

Ironically, Kohler-Cadmore did relegation-threatened Somerset no favours by keeping Lancashire at bay in the lazy afternoon. So tight is it near the foot of the table that any of five teams – Yorkshire included – could yet go down along with seemingly-doomed bottom club Gloucestershire.

There were essentially two obstacles standing in Lancashire’s way at the start of the fourth day in Manchester - first, and most obviously, their opponents and, second, the weather forecast, which suggested late afternoon showers. Conditions, in fact, were sunny at the start, with just a slight easterly breeze.

Lancashire’s tactics were evinced from the day’s first delivery which Dane Vilas, the Lancashire captain, met by dancing down the pitch to Dom Bess, the off-spinner, and plonking him for a mistimed two over mid-on’s head.

“Have a look, Dane,” someone quipped within shouting distance of the media centre, which is situated one floor above the dressing rooms opposite the pavilion.

Steven Croft was just as positive as his captain, but after extending his overnight three to 20, he should have fallen in the morning’s fourth over only for Steve Patterson to spill him at mid-off off Ben Coad. It was the second time in the match that Patterson had dropped a simple opportunity - he put down Luke Wells at mid-on in the first innings off Bess - and his rueful smile said it all.

Not that Coad was smiling, you fancy.

The pace bowler finished the second innings wicketless to leave him one shy of 200 wickets on his 50th first-class appearance, a milestone he would love to have achieved in this game.

Jonny Tattersall, the Yorkshire captain, brought himself on to bowl the day’s sixth over having turned his arm over for the first time in a first-team match the previous day.

Tattersall had introduced himself in an effort to improve a slow over-rate - Yorkshire clawed it back in the end - and, as he put it, because the visitors were “running out of ideas”.

After Vilas was bowled trying to make room to hit Bess square through the offside, Tattersall added a second scalp to that of the prized wicket of Keaton Jennings the previous evening when George Lavelle sliced to Fraine at mid-on.

Vilas called in his troops shortly afterwards, Croft finishing on 45 and Bess with 3-84 and Tattersall 2-27, the skipper having grown up bowling leg-spin before specialising in his familiar disciplines of batting and wicketkeeping.

Lancashire almost made the perfect start to the Yorkshire second innings but Adam Lyth was dropped off the first ball, a sharp chance to Josh Bohannon at short-leg off Tom Bailey.

Lyth did not make the most of the reprieve, falling in the 12th over with the score on 15 when he drove loosely at Will Williams and was caught behind. Not until the 14th over did Yorkshire find the boundary, which emphasised the challenge.

George Hill was the man who found it, flicking Bailey off his legs and sending the ball beneath the deserted Party Stand, which then prompted a comical search for it which included the sight of one Lancashire squad member emerging on the scene with a large broom in an attempt to claw the object back from underneath the seating.

By the time it was finally retrieved, a replacement had been found which did for Hill four overs later when he edged a drive at left-arm spinner Tom Hartley to second slip.

Bean stroked his first boundary after 65 minutes, a fine cover-drive off Bailey, and Yorkshire lunched on 30-2. Bean swept and then pulled Parkinson to the boundary after the break but was third out with the score on 67, caught behind pushing forward at Hartley.

Thereafter, Kohler-Cadmore and Fraine showed obduracy and skill, grafting valiantly to take Yorkshire to safety.

A sharp shower at 4.10pm hastened the finish, which officially came at 4.28pm with 20.4 overs left unbowled.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​