Yorkshire v Warwickshire: Nuisance ‘fly’ needs swatting if Yorkshire are to win

The sort of fly that evades all efforts to dispatch it.

The sort that laughs in the face of frazzled humans.

The sort that scoffs at the sight of rolled-up newspapers.

Ishant Sharma, the India pace bowler, recently described Chanderpaul as “the most irritating batsman to bowl to”.

It is a feeling known only too well by the Yorkshire players.

On a day of fluctuating character at Headingley Carnegie, Chanderpaul was in typically mulish mood.

His unbeaten 167, which underpinned a Warwickshire total of 340-6 in reply to Yorkshire’s first- innings 297, has been the obvious difference between the sides.

From the familiar base of a crab-like stance, which sees Chanderpaul wait with his leading shoulder pointing towards mid-wicket instead of back down the pitch towards the bowler, the West Indian nudged, nurdled and occasionally lashed out.

He was disciplined in defence and assured in attack.

His strokeplay was effective and apparently effortless.

In between, Chanderpaul left the ball with a flourish that briefly raised bowlers’ hopes of an edge before the bat withdrew at the very last second, as though mocking his adversaries as surely as a fly.

In a first-class career spanning 20 years, this was actually Chanderpaul’s first innings at Headingley, although he has previously played three times against Yorkshire.

In 1995 he scored 10 and 132 not out for the West Indians at Scarborough against a Yorkshire team captained by current director of professional cricket Martyn Moxon.

Chanderpaul then hit 49 in a one-day fixture at the same venue a few days later.

His third appearance came in 2007, when he was not required to bat as Durham cruised to a nine-wicket win in a Pro40 game at Chester-le-Street.

Having managed only one and nought in last week’s defeat to bottom-club Hampshire after joining Warwickshire until the end of the season, Chanderpaul produced exactly the sort of innings needed as the visitors chase their first Championship title since 2004.

The left-hander has traditionally thrived in adversity and he arrived at the crease with Warwickshire 5-2 in the fifth over.

Varun Chopra had missed a straight one from Steve Patterson and been bowled for a single, while Ian Westwood had been dismissed lbw for three by Ryan Sidebottom.

It was an unpromising position to say the least but Chanderpaul regarded it in a manner typical of a man who has bailed out his country on innumerable occasions en route to a record 133 Test caps for the West Indies.

The 37-year-old took a little while to find his feet against some quality bowling from Sidebottom and Patterson, who were probing and parsimonious during the early exchanges.

But the warning signs were present in the slick way Chanderpaul off-drove Patterson for four in the only boundary the pace bowler conceded during his first 10 overs.

After Laurie Evans was caught behind trying to cut David Wainwright’s fourth ball, leaving Warwickshire 47-3 in the 22nd over, Chanderpaul came into his own.

Rather than let Wainwright dictate to him, he danced down the wicket to strike the left-arm spinner over mid-wicket for four and then fetched him from outside off-stump to the square-leg boundary in front of the East Stand.

Chanderpaul’s half-century arrived just after lunch, reached from 89 balls with seven fours.

Like all the best players, he proceeded with an air of calm authority.

Chanderpaul found a willing ally in Jim Troughton, with whom he added 68 in 22 overs before Troughton perished not long after lunch with the total on 115.

The Warwickshire captain tried to bludgeon a ball from Rich Pyrah off the back foot through the covers but seemed surprised by extra bounce and was caught behind.

Thus, having done all the hard work in reaching 27, Troughton followed the fashion of the match.

Batsmen on both sides have got in but only Chanderpaul has gone on to a sizeable score.

Tim Ambrose threatened to do so during a splendid knock after Troughton’s departure, racing to fifty from 57 balls with nine fours – including six off successive deliveries.

The sequence began with two edged boundaries off Pyrah before he cover-drove the same bowler and then pulled him to the rope.

After Chanderpaul turned the first ball of the next over from Adil Rashid for a single, Ambrose punished two rank long-hops from the leg-spinner, who once again bowled a tad too short.

Chanderpaul and Ambrose added 111 in 24 overs before Ambrose fell for 66 shortly after tea, smartly caught by Jacques Rudolph at slip off Wainwright.

Ambrose seemed unimpressed with the decision, appearing to protest the ball had spun out of the rough and missed his bat entirely.

Darren Maddy – dropped at slip by Rudolph off Wainwright before he had scored – also looked aggrieved when he was adjudged lbw to Wainwright for 12 to leave Warwickshire 264-6.

Keith Barker (33) then helped Chanderpaul add 76 in 21 overs to give the visitors a healthy lead going into day three.