Lancashire v Yorkshire: Yorkshire frailties exposed again

The visitors made 141 in 73.3 overs after being sent into bat in challenging conditions. Lancashire replied with 56-1 from 16 overs to take a vice-like grip at the Liverpool venue. Yorkshire will need to perform wonders today to ensure this game does not run away from them faster than you can say “Gerry and the Pacemakers”. On a biting day near the banks of the Mersey, with a chill wind buffeting the players’ flannels, Yorkshire’s batting was ruthlessly exposed. They collapsed from 95-2 to lose their last eight wickets for 46 runs in 25.2 overs, the final five wickets tumbling for 12 runs in 54 balls. Although there was plenty of assistance for the bowlers before morning cloud cover gave way to afternoon sunshine, it was a dismal effort by the visitors. Only Joe Sayers (53), Andrew Gale (31) and Adil Rashid (14) reached double figures as Sri Lanka all-rounder Farveez Maharoof (4-35) and Gary Keedy (4-44) did the bulk of the damage. Even accounting for the quality of the opposition and the fact Yorkshire are missing key players (Jonny Bairstow, Anthony McGrath, Tim Bresnan, Ajmal Shahzad, Rich Pyrah and Gerard Brophy), one of the biggest concerns remains the rate at which Yorkshire are scoring. There was undoubtedly some mitigation yesterday but not complete justification for a run-rate of 1.91 per over. At that rate, Yorkshire would have totalled just 210 runs by the 110-over cut-off mark and accrued a solitary batting bonus point. If the season turns out to be as difficult as it is starting to look, Yorkshire will need all the bonus points they can get. They were immediately in trouble here after play began 45 minutes late due to drizzle. Adam Lyth’s struggles continued as he managed just a cover-driven four off James Anderson before falling to the first delivery of the fourth over, lbw to Lancashire captain Glen Chapple. Yorkshire fell to 30-2 in the 17th over when Joe Root went lbw to Maharoof after scoring four runs in 51 minutes. It should have got worse for Yorkshire before lunch as Gale and Sayers had moments of high fortune. Gale should have been stumped on two trying to attack Keedy, and Sayers, on 25, was out of his ground when he clipped a delivery from Keedy to Steven Croft at short-leg, who inexplicably missed the stumps from two yards. Yorkshire lunched on 57-2 from 28 overs but looked to be getting their house into some sort of order at the start of the afternoon session. Sayers had fought hard to weather some probing bowling but when he opened his shoulders to cut Anderson he was brilliantly caught by a diving Croft at point, triggering Yorkshire’s collapse. Sayers’s dismissal ended a stand of 65 in 32 overs with Gale, who quickly followed him back to the pavilion when he stepped across his stumps to Keedy and was bowled round his legs. Yorkshire lost their fifth wicket when Gary Ballance was caught at short-leg off Keedy, but Rashid and Simon Guy took Yorkshire into tea without further alarms on 117-5. Guy, playing his first Championship game for four years after wicketkeeper Brophy failed a fitness test on his bruised right thumb, had a lucky escape on five when he lofted Keedy just out of reach of the cover field. But Maharoof induced him to play-on shortly afterwards to leave Yorkshire 129-6, Guy hanging his bat out to a delivery just outside off-stump. The scoreboard showed 129-7 when diving Keedy took a fine return catch off Rashid, the tail collapsing in a heap as Maharoof had Steve Patterson lbw and then bowled Moin Ashraf before Keedy rounded off the innings by having Oliver Hannon-Dalby lbw. Lancashire lost Stephen Moore lbw to Patterson early in their reply, but Paul Horton (39) and Karl Brown (14) progressed serenely in the evening sunshine. Indeed, the only black mark on an otherwise red-letter day for Lancashire was the news billionaire businessman Albert Gubay is stepping up his challenge to the club’s plans to redevelop Old Trafford. Gubay is against the inclusion of a Tesco supermarket – a rival to his own plans for a store in nearby White City. He has been granted leave to appeal at the Court of Appeal, with Lancashire having already been given approval for the £70m project. chris.waters@ypn.co.uk Scoreboard: Page 22.