Yorkshire v Worcestershire: Yorkshire made to battle hard to put vital victory within grasp

NOTHING is ever straightforward as far as Yorkshire are concerned.

Even victories have had their element of trauma during a turbulent season for the White Rose county.

Anyone expecting a comfortable win against Worcestershire yesterday received a rude awakening at North Marine Road.

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What had promised to be something of a cinch became something of a flinch as Yorkshire made heavy weather of attempting to beat their relegation rivals.

Worcestershire went into day three on 82-4 in their second innings, 117 short of making Yorkshire bat again.

The home side had exposed the soft underbelly of a fragile batting order and it seemed only a matter of when, not if, Yorkshire would prevail.

But Worcestershire rallied to reach 332, the last two wickets putting on 116, to leave Yorkshire wanting 134 for victory.

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When stumps were drawn, they were 80-3 and the game had improbably spilled into a fourth and final day.

Joe Root (31) and Jonny Bairstow (12) will resume with a further 54 needed to achieve only Yorkshire’s second Championship win of the summer.

This time, it really should be a formality against a team who will clearly need to strike early and then keep on striking like men possessed.

A win for Yorkshire would send them above Worcestershire and out of the relegation zone with six Championship games remaining.

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It would also be a timely boost ahead of the return of South African batsman Jacques Rudolph, who is set to make his comeback in the Championship match against Lancashire at Headingley Carnegie which starts on Wednesday.

In cool and cloudy conditions beside the seaside, Worcestershire began tenaciously as no wickets fell during the opening hour of yesterday’s action.

Daryl Mitchell and James Cameron coped well with the challenges posed by opening bowlers Tim Bresnan and Ryan Sidebottom, who performed diligently but without reward.

It needed the introduction of Ajmal Shahzad to force the breakthrough, the pace man having Cameron caught high at third slip by Adil Rashid – a sharp chance to the fielder’s right which took some clutching in the bitterly cold weather.

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It was a much harder chance than the one Rashid dropped in the same position shortly afterwards, Gareth Andrew the beneficiary on 15 when Shahzad again located the outside edge.

Rashid injured his right index finger in the process and had to leave the field for treatment, but the leg-spinner later returned and bowled four overs.

Mitchell went to a dogged half-century from 133 deliveries with nine fours but fell for 55 when he was bowled by the probing Rich Pyrah.

Worcestershire lunched on 168-7, still 31 in arrears, and lost a wicket to the fourth ball after the interval when Shahzad bowled Ben Scott.

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Andrew went to an entertaining fifty from 67 balls only to throw his wicket away in horrible fashion.

The left-hander charged Pyrah and was caught behind for 57, leaving Worcestershire 216-8, just 17 ahead.

Saeed Ajmal and Jack Shantry chanced their arm to add 54 for the ninth wicket in 12 overs. Saeed had a life on 19 when he was dropped by Gary Ballance at second slip off Pyrah, who ended the partnership when he had Shantry caught behind. Ballance dropped another catch at second slip – his fourth of the match – when Shantry was reprieved on 21 off the luckless Bresnan.

Shantry celebrated his good fortune by smashing Shahzad for successive fours through long-off, long-on and the cover region.

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Shantry progressed to an unbeaten 47 and found a willing ally in Alan Richardson, with whom he added 62 in 13 overs.

Yorkshire’s fielding became increasingly frayed and there was palpable relief when Richardson was eventually yorked by Sidebottom, having scored 31 from 39 balls.

Yorkshire’s nuisance target evoked memories of the match against Nottinghamshire at Headingley earlier this season, when they were bowled out for 86 after being asked to make 145.

The butterflies among the Scarborough faithful were hardly eased when Yorkshire slipped to 13-1 in the sixth over when Adam Lyth was calamitously run-out.

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Root turned Shantry to deep square-leg, and Lyth was beaten at the non-striker’s end by a direct hit from Richardson as the batsmen tried for a risky two.

Yorkshire fell to 29-2 in the 17th over when Anthony McGrath shouldered arms and was lbw to Richardson, who bowled quite splendidly from the Peasholm Park end.

Andrew Gale was smartly stumped by Scott off Saeed for 17, but Root – dropped on four by Mitchell at slip off Saeed – once more displayed an old head on young shoulders to steer Yorkshire to within spitting distance of their target.