First of the 2008 Whine

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Friends Provident: Durham v Yorkshire – Riverside, 20th April

It’s an overcast April day and you’re facing arguably the best seam attack in the country. Two of your most experienced bowlers are injured. The England Grand Poobahs think Michael Vaughan is doing very nicely thank you very much and doesn’t need anymore time in the middle just now. And your overseas pro is, well, overseas.

The vagaries of the English spring have meant you’ve spent more time in pre-season practising your poker skills than out in the middle. You’re playing the defending champions in a form of the game you’ve never excelled at. Oh, and the last time you played at this ground you where bowled out for 122, a total the opposition knocked off in less than sixteen overs. All in all, not just a recipe for disaster, but given the game is being televised by Sky, a chance to ‘cook things up’ in front of the massed ranks of Gordon Ramsey’s that make up Yorkshire’s core support.

So, not the ideal start to a season, but the one we were faced with.

Things had got off to a bad start when Hoggy became unavailable on the morning of the match, leaving us fielding a side with six players 25 or under. But whilst most of the changes were forced on us, you’d have to say that Wainwright was unlucky to be left out, after being one of our best limited overs bowlers last year. Obviously the conditions in this particular game made an extra batsman a better bet than a second spinner. But I do wonder if, after seeming an automatic choice last season, the introduction into the mix this year of power plays and Young Adil aren’t going to hinder his selection chances.

You’re always going to be reluctant to bowl young inexperienced spinners in the first 20 overs of fielding restrictions or in the last five when the long handle comes out. So if we’re going to play both Wainwright and young Skywalker, they’ll need to get through 15-20 overs in the space of just 25. That’s not giving the captain a massive amount of tactical wiggle room and if there’s one thing we need to do in one day cricket, it’s be more adaptable to the match situation. Although having said all that, you’d hope our young spinners potential to be quality, containing bowlers would count in their favour.

Powerplays: Mimic international cricket, but do they help develop young spinners?

Given the chance to bowl first, our under strength attack did a reasonable enough job, with Shahzad’s ability to make the ball jag back at pace making him the standout. Ok, we allowed the opposition to get 20 or so more runs than we’d want, mainly due to a bit too much width when the fielding restrictions where in play and a bit too little of Rashid after they were relaxed, but even against the Durham seamers a side that bats down to number ten should have been in with a chance.

What followed was an all too familiar top order collapse when faced with the pressure of tight bowling at the start of a run chase. There were a variety of ‘What the hell was I doing’ moments on display, but I suspect Andy Gale in particular will be dreading his friends loading his dismissal onto youtube. It’s pretty difficult to look graceful when you’ve been stumped. So full marks to Adam Lyth for taking some of the heat off him by doing exactly the same thing. Add in a run out and a slow, slightly two paced early season pitch where the ball doesn’t come on to the bat and we were, as the French say, “dans la merde”.

Which bring us very nicely to 105-7. A position so precarious, that a Yorkshire win was now about as likely as ‘Dickie’ Bird getting caught up in a rap feud.

Harold “Dickie” Bird: Would never threaten to “bust a cap in yo ass”

But if the display of the top order had been a worrying sign for Yorkshire’s season, the way Brez & AJ fought back to take us within a whisker of an unlikely win, was one of the more encouraging signs for Yorkshire’s future we’ve seen in a long time. Whilst the results where equally thrilling, their approaches were slightly different. Brez playing clean, quality shots, whilst Ajmal showed more improvisation, and movement, at the crease. With one back cut to the boundry in particular looking like it came from the MCC coaching manual for sufferers of Saint Vitus Dance.

They played brilliantly throughout their 66 runs partnership to get us in a position where we could win by playing the ball along the floor, before they both got out to air shots, one caused by inexperience, the other a great slower ball from Onions. They might have just fallen short in this match, but there was enough to suggest they’ll see us over the finish line plenty of times in the future.

So, a defeat in the opening game of 2008. And a worry is now hanging over our injury list and one-day batting. But personally I think the later is more a problem of approach than talent. It’s all very well organising pinch hitters and dreaming of Jayasuriya and Hayden, but in conditions like this you sometimes have to build an innings more carefully and have one guy as an anchor the explosive hitters can bat around. Whisper it, but maybe, just maybe, it’s time to see if someone like Sayers can adapt his game to the shorter form.

Si’thee later,

Len

~ by lentheyorkshirekitman on 20 April, 2008.