It’s Monday, so we must be playing Durham again.

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Friends Provident: Yorkshire v Durham – Headingley, 5th May

Some batsmen seem to have an epiphany during their careers. A moment of realisation that they need to approach things in the different way, or perhaps an innings where everything clicks together and their game moves up to a higher level. Justin Langer had such a realisation. One that started him on the long and difficult journey from slightly creepy looking, slightly boring, opening batsman, to slightly creepy looking, slightly less boring, opening bat. Perhaps he took the advice of Confucius and began his journey with a single footstep (down the wicket towards an off-spinner).

We’d thought that Andy Gale’s moment had come during his century in the opening county championship game of the season against Hampshire – an innings that seemed to take him from fringe player to fixture in the team with one leap. But I’m starting to wonder if the real transformation hasn’t happened today.

Last season young Andrew became a regular in the one day side and made some useful runs, but you couldn’t escape the feeling that he needed to up his scoring rate if he wanted to start playing match winning innings.

Now, Andy is a bright lad and a talented coach himself. Skills he’s put to good use during the winter, working out how to move his one-day game up a notch. The first results of his hard work coming during our pre-season fishing trip to Abu Daubi. But it was during today’s effort – an exhilarating 68 off 50 deliveries – when he proved he could do it when it really mattered. In this case, against one of the better one day sides. All be it, a team taking the view that just because a batsman has been hitting the short ball confidently to the boundary all day, it doesn’t mean he’s going to keep doing it.

Ok, so hitting Steve Harmison around hasn’t got the kudos it once had. If you got dealt him in a game of County Cricketers Top Trumps, you’d have to hope ‘ability to direct you to the nearest working men’s club’ was one of the categories – it’s not, that’s far too long to fit on the cards.

But even so, this was an impressive innings and so different to what we’d seen from the lad before, it reminded you of the opening scene from 2001. The one where man first learns to fashion rudimentary weapons from the objects around him and so enters a different stage of his evolution. Not that Andy lives in a barren Neolithic wilderness, of course. He’s actually from Dewsbury.

The 2 A.M. queue outside a Dewsbury kebab shop.
Looks nothing like this.

As for the match itself, Yorkshire maintained their home form by comprehensively outplaying Durham in all aspects of the game.

We started well by restricting them to less than 200, with the only Durham batsman to make runs Coetzer – but given how many times Deon beat the edge of his bat, it was only a matter of time before we got him too. In fact, you where left with the impression that when God was handing out luck, Coetzer offered to collect Deon’s share for him, then disappeared off with it.

When we came to bat, Gale’s innings put the match pretty much out of Durham’s reach, with Rudolph and Mags left with a relatively easy task of guiding us home. Something Mags managed to do without running anyone out. Well done Mags.

Oh, and a few last thoughts.

• Giving Bresnan the new ball is a good move. I’d like to see us try it in the championship too.

• Brophy isn’t working as a pinch-hitter. We need to move him back down

• I wonder if the other Durham players refer to Dale’s wife as “The bride of Benkenstein”? Cricketers can be so cruel.

Si’ thee later,

Len
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~ by lentheyorkshirekitman on 5 May, 2008.