v Yorkshire CC1 @ Taunton Tuesday 30 June 2009

Scorecard

Commentary

Overcast and humid at Bicknoller Towers this morning - swing bowling heaven.....So Alfonso, Charl and Pete will be in for this one.  What of ARC?  Well the official site is saying yes so we should see 6 foot 7 of international bowler striding out at 11:00.

The declared squad of 13 includes a couple of injury doubts.  Phillips will probably not take the field and Waller may not be over his injury at Edgbaston so may not be up for consideration.  So it seems that Langer's only real consideration will be whether to leave the spin option in the hands of his opening batsman Arul Suppiah or invite Omari Banks to take the 11th spot in the side.  He may opt for an all pace attack in which case that last spot will go to David Stiff.  I personally would expect to see Banks but Caddick's fitness may also have an influence and Stiff may be drafted in to provide cover for a break down in the big man.

Expected side;

Trescothick, Suppiah, Langer, de Bruyn, Hildreth, Kieswetter, Trego, Banks, Thomas, Caddick, Willoughby

The Stiff option has been chosen given the overcast conditions, Justin has gone with pace.  Yorkshire have won the toss and elected to bat first.  Surprising?  Well with Hoggard in the side and taking into acocunt what he did to us on a swinging pitch in the first hour of the Headingley game I personally think so but we'll have to see if Mcgrath has made an error or an astute assessment of the pitch and the side he faces.  I'll be at the game later and the commentray shou.d be ready to go so more to come during the day.

Day 1 Rudolph's Day

With Caddick back in a five man pace attack and overcast conditions for most of the day one would have hoped that McGrath's decision to bat with his young and inexperienced side could have been to the home side's advantage.

Willoughby (bowling from the River end unexpectedly) was partnered with Thomas for the opening spell.  An indication of the form of the latter.  Langer hoped for swing and early wickets.  To some extent he got them as Alfonso paid his skipper back for the confidence and skittled Sayers with only 24 up.  He then welcomed the Yorkshire captain with a hefty rap on the helmet as McGrath took his eye of a rising one and got it in the head.

Unfortunately, it didn't rattle the skippe and he and Rudolph built a much more assertive second wicket partnership.  Caddick and Stiff came on as a double change.  It was good to see the tall man loping in once more and we thought he'd done the trick when a full inswinger had Jacques castled all ends up - beautiful ball.  But the big man had overstepped and Rudolph went on from 35 (ominously it became clear later).  Stiff had a big job to do today.  This was the test, bowling with a Somerset icon.  He didn't get his line right though and Rudolph especially punished him for it.  He went for 52 off his first 7 and established the South African at the crease. 

When Trego took Anthony caught behind at 104 we thought we might have another breakthrough but by this time Rudolph was running the innings and he and Lyth started to push the score along at an alarming rate in the middle session after lunch.  It wasn't a case of nothing for the bowlers but there were more than enough balls for the Yorkshiremen to plunder and too many they didn't have to play at. In the end Justin had to turn to de Bruyn to break the partnership at 222 when he had Lyth caught by Hildreth in midfield.

Rudolph was over three figures, Gale was at the wicket and the opposition were in charge and although Willoughby did remove Gale at 267 just before Tea a 400 score in the day and a double hundred were on the cards.  We were behind the required run rate, we had only one spinner to try and put the brakes on and the swing that seemed to be there was not paying dividends for the bowlers although they were unlucky on more than one occasion,  But the 'press' wasn't there and we kept letting the batsmen dictate terms with looseners and four balls relieving the pressure when it was built up.

After Tea Langer and Trescothick seemed to have a plan for Bairstow - who had such a good match on debut at Headingley.  But despite the fact that he didn't seem connected to the game for much of the first hour at the crease and that his first 14 runs came mostly from poor shot selection that edged balls just out of reach of the 3 slip cordon, he was a stubborn mule to shift.  Meanwhile Jacques just ploughed on.

Langer brought Suppiah into the attack (although mostly to get the over rate up from -2) and he caused both batsmen more trouble - because they had to play more deliveries.  Thomas was used from the River but was wide of the mark too many times and eventually the skipper resorted to Stiff from the OP.  A much better second spell from the young man delivered a result as Rudolph went to cut one and played on to his leg stump on 191.  7 overs for 23 was David's second spell result and the vitally important wicket of the man who almost was the Yorkshire innings.  Excellent knock from Rudolph, solid, sensible and fully assured and we left the pitch to very warm appreciative applause.

Could we get into them now?  Rafiq was the next man in at 338 for 5.  19 year old, usually a number 9 or 10 but who made 100 in his last game in a huge 9th wicket stand with the Hogster against Worcestershire.  He looked good as well.  He didn't hit a lot but he looked like he could.  He was taking no chances with just over 10 overs to go.  His job was to keep up an end and give Bairstow the chance to develop an innings.  The son of the famous Tykes keeper had survived the early jitters and was playing strokes with a little more authority but he still seemed a little detached from the job at hand so the Somerset boss brought Willoughby back at the River and gave "Alf" a last spell at the OP.

Thomas bowls the last spell of the day in a Championship match as if it is the last part of a one day innings and he got his full length ball going.  Twice he speared the ball into the feet of Rafiq and twice the batsman managed to survive without actually dealing with the ball.  On the first one he just got bat on a ball that hit him plumb in front and on the second he went to flip the ball away and missed it as it flew past and into the keeper's gloves.  This ball particularly got right up Alfonso's nose and he had words (he'd already had a little "conference" with Bairstow). Back to his mark and in again with an absolutely superb inswinger that had Rafiq in all sorts of trouble.  This time he connected and Craig pouched the ball.  Out for 4 and Yorkshire 370 for 6.

We were into the tail and Shazad arrived with the sole purpose of taking his side through to the end of the day.  No attempts to do anything but keep the ball out and support the established man.  Thomas was fired up and steaming in so it was not the time for Bairstow to lose concentration.  Alfonso was bouncing both men and producing some pace and some movement but it was the end of the day so it was just a case of avoidance for the batsmen.  In the penultimate over that is exactly what should have happened.  Unfortunately Bairstow didn't get his bat far enough away from one he was leaving and he deposited the ball right into the keeper's gloves 7 balls from the end!!

375 for 7 and Hoggy next man in.  We need an hour of effort at the start of Day 2...Maybe some Caddick magic as he is the only paceman without a wicket?  Back in the game boys and girls.  What will tomorrow bring?

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