Davies adds his own half-marathon as Yorkshire are road blocked

Yorkshire 15 for 0 trail Surrey 330 (Davies 117, Sangakkara 73) by 315 runs
Scorecard

Steven Davies kept his cool in the sun to complete a solid century that held Surrey together on the first day of the Specsavers County Championship match against title-holders Yorkshire at Headingley.

It was the 21st first class century of Davies' career and his first in the Championship for almost exactly a year. He was eventually out for a defiant 117 off 163 balls with 20 fours and Surrey were bowled out for 330 after winning the toss. Yorkshire were left with two overs in which to bat and they closed on 15 without loss.

"I have not got the wicketkeeping gloves at the moment, so it is all about scoring big runs," Davies said. "There are a few spots there in the England side and I just need to keep knocking at the door. I just wanted to concentrate on my batting for a while and I didn't want the gloves but I feel motivated and energised again and would like to wear them but so far the club have not gone down that route."

For much of the time, Surrey appeared to have the upper hand but Yorkshire rallied late in the day, six wickets falling in 20 overs and four of them to the second new ball.

Many in the 1,803 crowd were not in their seats by the starting time, a half-marathon in Leeds causing roads leading up to the ground to be closed off from early morning until lunchtime.

But those who did make it saw a first hour of fluctuating fortunes with 40 runs scored, two wickets going down and three catches being dropped.

When Rory Burns nicked David Willey into Jonathan Bairstow's gloves with the score on 14, Arun Harinath had already survived a sharp chance to Gary Ballance at fourth slip and he enjoyed two further lives, Jack Brooks failing to hold on at long leg and Adam Lyth putting one down at second slip.

The latter escape came off the third ball of Liam Plunkett's spell but his next delivery was miscued by Harinath and popped to Ballance at cover.

Surrey were 38 for two but Kumar Sangakkara and Davies soon rattled along with the Sri Lankan in his most majestic form and finding the boundary with a succession of drives through the cover point region.

Sangakkara was 45 and Davies 21 at lunch which arrived with Surrey on 96 for two but the third wicket pair continued to blossom in the afternoon as each batsman reached his half-century, Sangakkara off 78 balls with nine fours and Davies from 94 deliveries with eight boundaries.

Yorkshire were beginning to wonder where a wicket would come from but after skipper Andrew Gale had temporarily left the field for treatment after diving on to the rope, two went down in consecutive overs.

Sangakkara had looked invincible until he tried to guide Plunkett over the slips and was well caught by Alex Lees for 73 off 101 balls with 13 boundaries to take his runs tally for Surrey to 470 in seven knocks.

Then Jason Roy departed to his fourth ball from Brooks, superbly held low down to his left at third slip by Joe Root. Roy hung around for a while, possibly feeling he had played the ball into the ground, and he responded gently to the jeers of the crowd as he left the field.

At 161 for four, Surrey could have slipped further if Davies had not calmly held things together by following up his 122 stand with Sangakkara with another century partnership with Ben Foakes.

Runs came steadily and without too much difficulty, Davies on-driving Root to complete a handsome century off 137 balls with 18 fours and at tea Surrey were well placed on 230 for four.

But just as two wickets had gone down unexpectedly earlier on, the same was to happen again in consecutive overs from Steve Patterson as Davies drove gently to Root at short cover to end his 103 stand with Foakes who was caught by Lees at first slip for 45.

Again, Yorkshire had the chance to make further inroads with Surrey on 273 for six but James Burke and Tom Curran kept the initiative with the visitors until Burke and Gareth Batty fell lbw at 309 to leave Willey on a hat-trick, the first ball of his next over being safely pushed out to gully by Ravi Rampaul.

Yorkshire were hitting back in some style and Brooks comprehensively bowled Curran at 321 to bring the Champions maximum bowling points. The innings was wrapped up when Rampaul top-edged a high catch to Bairstow of Brooks who finished with three wickets, as did Willey.