Report on first day of Yorkshire v Worcestershire, 13th August 2003 by John Ward

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Scorecard:

Yorkshire v Worcestershire

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Lunch: Yorkshire 130/9 (Dawson 42*, Kirby 4*).
Tea: Yorkshire 130 all out; Worcestershire 91 all out.
Close: Yorkshire (2) 137/5 (White 42*, Kirby 6*).

It was one of the most remarkable day’s cricket of the season, or in the first-class history of the Scarborough ground. On the first day of the match between Yorkshire and Worcestershire, 25 wickets fell for the scoring of 358 runs, and the match looked destined to finish in two days.

The pitch, having endured a thunderstorm early in the week, allowed some seam movement, but was not responsible for the tumbling of wickets; there was more scope for swing. Kabir Ali of Worcestershire bowled superbly, Yorkshire caught brilliantly, and both teams batted poorly.

The pitch had a tinge of green, but it was not enough to persuade Yorkshire to field on winning the toss. An inadvertent thick edge by Matthew Wood off Kabir Ali, along the ground between slips and gully, brought them a boundary off the first ball of the match. The third ball, swinging in, caught him in front of his stumps and Yorkshire’s first wicket was down.

From the other end South African Nantie Hayward opened the bowling, arousing speculation about a sledging contest during the match between the two ginger-headed pacemen, Hayward and Steve Kirby of Yorkshire. The Worcestershire new-ball attack was erratic at times until Ali settled, but there were enough balls of real quality to give Stephen Fleming and Anthony McGrath much to think about. McGrath profited from following the old adage, “If you slash, slash hard,” as a thick edge from his bat flew over the slips so fast that a fielder did remarkably well to get his fingertips to it.

McGrath made 11 before Ali pierced his defences, and again the lbw decision went in favour of the bowler, with height being the only query as the ball struck him well up the pad. Michael Lumb, newly capped by Yorkshire, foolishly opted to shoulder arms to the next ball, which surprised him by moving back and winning another lbw decision. Yorkshire were in trouble at 26 for three.

It became 34 for four as Victor Craven (7) demonstrated the other method of suicide, offering no shot to Ali and finding the ball moving in to the left-hander and removing his bails. Ali, pitching the ball well up and swinging it skilfully both ways, now had figures of four for 11.

Fleming, though, was batting with quiet assurance and scoring quite freely off the more erratic Hayward. Then he took two classic boundaries off Ali’s seventh over and it seemed the spell was broken. However, with the last ball Ali moved one in, Fleming incredibly showed he had learned nothing from the batsmen ahead of him, offered no shot though playing well forward, and umpire Barrie Leadbeater raised his prolific finger for the fourth time in an hour. Yorkshire were now 57 for five, Fleming having made 31.

Simon Guy failed to score, trying in vain to remove his bat from a swinging delivery and being taken by the keeper Steven Rhodes; 57 for six in the 15th over after little more than an hour’s play. Hayward was rested after a six-over spell that conceded 38 runs for no wicket, but Ali continued, with Rhodes now standing up to the stumps.

White, looking to dominate, drove Ali through the covers for four, but next ball became the swing bowler’s seventh victim, for 12, edging a ball past the keeper to first slip; 72 for seven. At last a wicket fell at the other end, as Andy Gray drove at a full-length ball from Matt Mason and was bowled off stump for 11; 80 for eight.

At 93 Chris Silverwood (7) drove Ali uppishly, to be caught in the overs, but Richard Dawson hit out boldly to take Yorkshire past 100 with a succession of boundaries off Mason. Kirby kept an end up with an admirably broad bat, while Dawson made batting look easy for a while in the largest partnership of the innings.

They lasted until lunchtime, which had not seemed likely, but afterwards Kirby seemed to lose his resolve and took a swing at the second ball from Hayward to be bowled for 4; the admirable Dawson was unbeaten with 42 out of a miserable 130. Ali’s eight for 53 was the best bowling return of the entire first-class English season to date. Also most creditable was the single extra, a leg-bye, during the entire Yorkshire innings.

Kirby believed he had trapped Stephen Peters lbw in his first over, but umpire Leadbeater had perhaps given his quota for the day. His partner Mike ‘Pasty’ Harris had no hesitation, though, in dispatching Anurag Singh for 1 off the first ball off Silverwood’s next over. Graeme Hick responded with two boundaries off the rest of the over.

Kirby quickly put matters to right, in his view, thanks to a superb low catch by Fleming at first slip to dismiss Peters for 6. Next to go was Ben Smith (2), who edged the rather erratic Silverwood low to the right of keeper Guy, who took a superb diving catch.

Umpire Leadbeater continued to be in the midst of the action, rejecting another frantic appeal for lbw by Kirby, this time against Hick, still on 8. But umpire Harris was taking over his mantle: Vikram Solanki (0) was the fourth batsman of the day to depart through his decision to play no stroke, lbw to Silverwood. Worcestershire were now reeling at 24 for four.

Silverwood was at times erratic in direction, but he pitched a fuller length than Kirby, who generally bowled too short to swing the ball, although he obtained some movement off the pitch. They did not bowl as well as Ali had done, but they were faced with even poorer batting. Hick remained stuck on 8 for quite some time, but he had hardly got under way again with two more boundaries when he slashed Kirby uppishly straight to backward point, to depart for 16; 36 for five.

Justin Kemp (5) was out to an unusual dismissal: he played forward to Kirby and appeared to get an inside edge on to his pad; this did not stop Kirby from appealing from lbw, but he ran through to take an easy catch as the ball ballooned back down the pitch. Worcestershire were 38 for six.

In these circumstances a partnership of 15 for the seventh wicket between Rhodes and Gareth Batty, sent home from the Test squad after play had started, counted as a major stand. Again there was some controversy about the dismissal of Batty (5), who dabbed at a ball from Craven and was given out caught at the wicket. Rhodes (10) followed in the next over, caught at third slip slashing at Kirby, and the score was now 53 for eight.

Another 'major' stand followed, 17 for the ninth wicket, until Kirby took his fifth wicket when Kabir Ali (6) fished at a ball outside off stump to be caught at the wicket; 70 for nine. Last man Hayward was keen to ‘give himself room’, as the modern phrase has it, when batting against Kirby. Mason, perhaps sensing his time was short, hit Silverwood over his head for six. A slash over the slips made him top scorer for the innings, 25 before Kirby bowled him with a leg-stump yorker and Worcestershire were dismissed for 91.

If Yorkshire’s 130 had been miserable, Worcestershire’s 91 was positively wretched. In both innings the tenth wicket had been the most profitable stand. Yorkshire took a lead of 39, with Kirby taking six for 51 and Silverwood three for 33. They had not bowled as well as Worcestershire, but had been helped by some superb catches and opponents who had batted even worse than they.

There followed the rare sight of the umpires changing ends and the second innings starting immediately after tea on the first day. The Yorkshire openers began the second innings with aggression, but Wood (16) was a bit too frenetic. With the total 21 in the fourth over, he drove a return catch back at Hayward.

Fleming started more slowly but continued more securely, playing some beautifully timed strokes against Hayward in particular. Cover drives and flicks to midwicket were especially impressive. Ali still commanded respect, but was unable to exert the dominance that he had in the first innings and bowled only five overs in his first spell.

On 35 Fleming had the good fortune to be dropped by Solanki low at slip off Kemp, but McGrath was less fortunate. Perhaps taken by surprise by a rare good ball from the erratic Mason, he was trapped lbw by a ball that moved back on him for 16. Fleming, perhaps distracted, edged Kemp to the keeper, still on 35, and Yorkshire at 67 for three were in danger of throwing it away again.

Stagnation set in. Lumb spent 17 balls trying to avoid his pair, but failed; trying to withdraw his bat in vain, he was caught at the wicket off Kemp and Yorkshire were 78 for four. Craven was battling slowly and White, after an early boundary, also went into his shell for some while.

Finally, though, White began to assert himself, mostly at the expense of Hayward, who showed dissent when an lbw appeal was rejected but had it ignored by the umpires. Craven in contrast virtually ground to a halt before he was caught at slip off Kemp for 17; 124 for five.

Kirby came in as night-watchman and survived the day to end with 6; White, whose innings on the second day may be crucial for the result of the match, was unbeaten with 42 out of 137 for five. Yorkshire finished with a lead of 176 with five wickets left, by no means safe under normal circumstances, but it was not a normal day’s play. Naturally, with so much action, the players were totally incapable of keeping up with the required over rate and play finished 50 minutes late.

 

(Article: Copyright © 2003 John Ward)