Another one bites the dust…

.

Friends Provident: Yorkshire v Scotland – Headingley, 26th May

At the end of last season I wrote about the ageing demographic of our seam attack, noting we needed “one of the younger seamers to break into the side. At the moment we’re running the risk of having too many bath chairs for Breznan to push at once.” What I should of said, was that we’d have too many wheelchairs to push at one time. Because, cover me in old newspaper and call me a fish supper, if another one hasn’t started his day running in from the Kirkstall Line end and ended it limping in from the x-ray department. Honestly, at the moment Scott McAllister has to deal with more bits falling off than an Aeroflot engineer.

This time it was Deon Kruis’ turn to activate the speed dial to the local hospital, pulling up with his hamstring halfway through an over. By my reckoning that makes him our seventh injured bowler this season. If it were a string of racehorses going lame like this, we’d have enough glue by now to keep Henry stuck on Rana’s head for the rest of his natural.

The knock on effects could be serious too, as the temptation is always there to play bowlers coming back from injury before they are fully recovered. Not to mention the effect on the Chief Exec when he opens our next medical insurance premium renewal – he was shaking for three days the last time the cost of first class stamps went up.

It’s all very perplexing. Why do our players keep getting injured like this? It’s one of the mysteries of Yorkshire’s season, along with why can’t we get a first wicket partnership to last more than half a dozen overs and why does Andy Gale dye his hair so it looks even more ginger?

The Ginger Prince: Not really royalty, not really a “Strawberry Blonde”

Adding to the disappointment over Deon’s injury is the fact that it overshadowed what was a very solid performance by us in the match. To a casual glance of a scorecard, 244 might seem like too many runs to concede against a side like Scotland, but this was a cracker of a pitch and the Saltires had already shown against Lancashire earlier in the month that they’re not a guaranteed two points.

But the two biggest plus points from the game would have to be the run-a-ball ton by Mags and Goughie managing to get through his ten overs.

We’ve badly missed the weight of runs Mags normally gives us, so far this year; it’s left our batting looking very brittle. Judging by the last couple of innings he’s played, his form may be on the up, which in turn will take some of the pressure off Rudolph to perform every time he goes to the wicket.

After this match finished, Goughie announced to the press that he was retiring at the end of the season. It’s a shame that his final year for us has barely had chance to get going, as the injury he picked up in pre-season has meant he’s never really gained full fitness or got completely into his normal rhythm. He’s probably going to be in and out of the county side for the rest of the year now, as playing him in every match, particularly on surfaces like we had at the Oval, would be nothing more than counter-productive. Again it’s bad timing that the need for him to nurse his way through the season has come in a year when so many others have broken down, putting pressure on him to bowl when perhaps discretion would be the better part of valour.

So with the end so near and his body feeling every over, more than ever before, we’ve got to treasure games like this. They’re one of the few remaining opportunities we’ll get, to see him go to the well for us and pull up a match changing performance

Si’ thee later,

Len
.

~ by lentheyorkshirekitman on 26 May, 2008.