You’ll never win anything with kids
Championship: Somerset v Yorkshire – Taunton, 6th – 9th June
Seven years of plenty will be followed by seven years of famine. Wasn’t that the biblical prophecy? Something like that anyway. It’s hard for me to remember, as the last time I knelt down in church my replacement hip clicked into lock position and it took the vicar and several parishioners to drag me back up again. I’ve stayed well clear ever since.
Well for Yorkshire’s bowlers, seven days of championship famine, at the Oval and Headingley, have been followed by four days of unexpected plenty at Taunton, a pitch that normally leaves seamers feeling like they’ve spent forty days and forty nights in the wilderness.
Taunton: responsible for more runs than an outbreak of Dysentery (well you think of an analogy then)
As with the FP semi-final at Gloucester, we went into this match buoyed by the return of Hoggy, as replacement for a Darren Gough whose current level of mobility is somewhere between Douglas Barder and Professor Steven Hawking. Which still makes him several weeks closer to fitness than some of our squad.
But even with Matthew’s return to championship duty and the selection of only four specialist batsmen, we still had an under strength looking attack, that contained three bowlers with thirteen championship games and four wickets between them. So, Rashid apart, after Hoggy and Bresnan had taken the new ball, there’s wasn’t much experience for captain Anthony McGrath to turn too.
Rich Pyrah: Thirty-one overs in the championship before this match
Yet, what Yorkshire achieved in this match, and achieved with seven home-grown players 25 and under, was a thrilling victory, in as intense and compelling a game of cricket as you could wish for. If Yorkshire’s two previous games had been first class cricket at its most turgid and meandering, then this was sport at its unpredictable and exhilarating best. You only had to observe the contrasting emotions at the end to see how hard fought a contest this was. As Yorkshire’s players celebrated like a branch of Hooters was opening on the Kirkstall Lane, whilst an ashen faced Justin Langer confessed to Sky TV that he was finding Division One in the Championship just as tough as state cricket back home in Australia.
With such a closely fought, seesawing match, it’s hard to pick out one thing that separated the sides. Perhaps the innings by Rudolph that, in terms of class, was head and shoulders above any other in the match? Perhaps the standard of Yorkshires fielding either side of the wicket? Or perhaps it was the shot selection by some of the Somerset upper order, who seemed so gorged with runs at this ground that they neglected to play themselves in against more determined opposition?
Ian Blackwell: Is a level 3 cricket coach
Who is equally adept at missing the ball with one hand as with two
But ultimately this was that most satisfying of victories, one achieved by a team effort. A young, talented team, still learning their craft. Which makes this match far more important than just 21 points in this championship race. To win is important, to blood your young talent equally so. But to do both at the same time is rare, and a luxury that may not reveal it’s true worth for years to come.
Si’thee later,
Len
(Match photos: By kind permission of Dave Morton)
My Man of the Match: The Entire Team
Result: Yorkshire (21 points) Beat Somerset (5 points) by 40 runs
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