Root and Bairstow steady Yorkshire chase
Yorkshire remain well placed to earn an County Championship double over fellow strugglers Worcestershire although the hosts made heavy weather of their task on the third day at Scarborough
13-Jul-2011
Yorkshire remain well placed to earn an County Championship double over
fellow strugglers Worcestershire although the hosts made heavy weather of their
task on the third day at Scarborough.
Chasing 134 for victory after stubborn resistance from the visitors took
Worcestershire to a second-innings 332, Yorkshire closed on 80 for 3, 53
runs behind.
Worcestershire were in big trouble on 82 for 4 at the start of the day,
still trailing by 117 after the hosts posted 367 to establish a 199-run
first-innings advantage. But the visitors refused to throw in the towel, with skipper Daryl Mitchell and James Cameron taking few risks against the pace of Ryan Sidebottom and Tim
Bresnan.
The fifth-wicket pair had just batted through the first hour when Cameron drove
at a full-length ball from Ajmal Shahzad and Adil Rashid held on at third slip. Mitchell got stuck on 46 for an hour before cover-driving Richard Pyrah to reach his half-century with his ninth boundary.
Gareth Andrew was then put down when on 15 by Rashid, who split his right index
finger in dropping the fairly straightforward chance and spent spells off the
field either side of lunch.
Worcestershire lost another wicket before lunch when Pyrah bowled Mitchell
through the gate for 55 from 141 balls with 10 fours. After the break, Scott was clean bowled by a splendid yorker from Shahzad to end his resistance on nine.
Saeed Ajmal shrugged off a blow to the side of his face from Bresnan to hit
Shahzad for a legside boundary to finally wipe out the arrears, but Andrew then
spoiled a neatly compiled half-century by slashing wildly at a loose ball from
Pyrah to be caught behind for 57.
Yorkshire were not making things easy for themselves, however, and Saeed Ajmal
should have departed for 19 only for Gary Ballance to grass the chance at second
slip, his third drop of the match.
That escape allowed Ajmal and Jack Shantry to take their stand to 54 in 11
overs before Ajmal fell to a great delivery from Pyrah for 47, the ball seaming
off the edge of the bat to Jonny Bairstow.
Worcestershire, at 270 for 9, still had plenty of fight left in them and the
last-wicket pair of Shantry and Richardson went on the rampage, aided by further
bad fielding lapses.
The hapless Ballance fluffed another chance in the slips when he dropped
Shantry on 21 off Bresnan, and the batsman celebrated the return of Shahzad by
smashing his first ball back over the bowler's head for four and also taking
boundaries off the next two deliveries.
Shantry sailed past his previous best knock of 13 not out and runs flowed as
Yorkshire and their fans became increasingly frustrated. The score had rattled on to 332, with the last-wicket stand worth 62, when Sidebottom bowled Richardson for 31 just before tea. Shantry's unbeaten 47 came off 73 balls with eight fours.
Yorkshire began their run chase after the interval and soon suffered a setback
as Adam Lyth was run out by a direct hit at the bowler's end from Alan
Richardson after Joe Root had called for a second run.
Root then edged Ajmal to slip where he was dropped by Mitchell with the score
on 19, and Yorkshire were put under further pressure on 29 when Anthony McGrath
fell lbw to Richardson, whose 11-over opening spell conceded only 15 runs.
A well-flighted ball by Ajmal lured Andrew Gale forward for him to be stumped
by Scott but Root stayed calm under pressure and will begin the final day on 31,
with Bairstow unbeaten on 12.