Roses latest: Yorkshire punished as missed chances mount up at Headingley

The hosts put down four chances of varying difficulty – lifting their aggregate to “17 or 18” drops in the first four-and-a-bit games, according to captain Patterson – as Lancashire reached 288-3 after he sent them into bat, Keaton Jennings scoring an unbeaten 150 and Steven Croft 104.

Jennings was dropped three times – on two by wicketkeeper Harry Duke low to his left off Patterson, on 70 by Adam Lyth at slip off Dom Bess, and on 85 by Patterson himself low in his follow through.

Croft was spilled on five by Harry Brook at third slip off Tom Loten, with Yorkshire’s catching – usually so certain – deserting them once again. “It was a disappointing day in the end,” said Patterson.

“We started off brightly, and then it was a case of deja vu really. We knew it was going to be a decent surface but we felt that if there was anything in it, it would be on the first morning. We got two early wickets and then put two soft chances down very quickly after that. They should have been 22-4 at that point. Then, as the ball got softer, it just became harder for us. The pitch got slower and slower, and it became more difficult from there.

“We know we’re light on bowling at the moment. We’ve got a lot of injuries and people unavailable, so the lads who have played have already bowled quite a lot of overs this year. If you’re going to win games of cricket, you can’t afford to be bowling extra overs unnecessarily like we are doing at present. I think we’ve counted 17 or 18 dropped chances so far this year, and those are not half chances either, those are genuine chances that you’d expect players to take. At some point, it catches up with you, and we let Lancashire off the hook.

“We had the chance to grab it with both hands this morning – we could have had them 50-5 – but we didn’t take our chance and they’re a good side and made us pay. It’s going to be hard, tough toil from here. The momentum is firmly with them now. We’ve got to try and force our way back into the game somehow.”

Patterson continued: “At the end of the day, first-class cricket is tough cricket. We’re playing against one of the best teams in the country and you know it’s a challenge from the minute that you step on the field. You’ve got to be at your best to get on top of teams like this. We had that chance, we didn’t take it once again and gifted them opportunities.”

Patterson sportingly paid tribute to Jennings: “Fair play to Keaton. He played a fantastic innings, but he should have been out early off me and we had an lbw that we thought should have been given that obviously wasn’t, but that happens.

“He’s made us pay and that’s what good players do.”

Patterson said his men are giving their all and concluded: “Nobody means to drop a catch, we all know that. Everybody tries their best and the lads practice hard, so it’s not through lack of effort or anything like that, but there comes a time where you need to be better than we are at the moment.

“We say it every week, we need to take every opportunity, but every game that comes we seem to drop as many if not more than the week before, and on pitches like this, with an inexperienced bowling attack, you can’t afford to put those chances down. We can’t afford to be having to take 13/14 wickets every innings.”

Yorkshire started well as Jordan Thompson reduced Lancashire to 12-2 in a fine opening spell from the Kirkstall Lane end.

Thompson had Luke Wells caught behind and then trapped the highly-rated Josh Bohannon leg-before with an excellent yorker. But after lunching on 53-2 from 30 overs, which was testament to how well Yorkshire bowled in the morning, Lancashire prospered in the afternoon sunshine.

Jennings and Croft added 134 in the session in 34 overs, Jennings going to his third successive Roses century to equal the Lancashire record of Geoff Pullar in 1959/1960, made from 207 balls with 16 fours.

Croft followed him to the landmark from 212 deliveries, also with 16 fours, plus a six over wide-long on off Joe Root.

The third-wicket stand had reached 237 – surprisingly, just 22 runs short of establishing a new Roses record for any wicket for Lancashire – when Croft was trapped leg-before by Haris Rauf as he attempted to turn the second new ball through mid-wicket.