Andrew Gale: hero

By Gary Watton
June 9 2013

Having remarkably won the toss yet again and put Nottinghamshire into bat, Andrew Gale more than made amends when his decision to bowl first backfired. Although the visitors cruised to a score well in excess of four hundred runs, captain Gale had the last laugh when he compiled a career-best 272. Few people, not even Andrew himself, could have foreseen such a magnificent, marathon stint.

In the event, both teams batted themselves to relative safety, thereby nullifying any prospects of a positive result. However, at the conclusion of his mammoth performance, Gale quite rightly chose to declare in the half-baked hope that his bowlers just might skittle over the Nottinghamshire batsmen in the last few hours of this high-scoring skirmish. Twas not to be, in spite of the early scalp of Hales. Instead Cowan and Lumb comfortably batted the away team over the finishing line to obtain a draw.

This drawn encounter was another outing and opportunity to impress for some of Yorkshire's second-string bowlers and indeed proved a stark reminder of how much we miss the firepower of Bresnan, Brooks, and Plunkett, not to mention the talented Azeem Rafiq. Consequently, Gale's decision to field first was a gamble that did not pay off. For all the worthy attempts of Ashraf and Pyrah, they are a bit inexperienced or maybe mediocre. As a result, our former player Michael Lumb was able to cash in with a century which all but ruined any chance of a Yorkshire victory and which placed the away team in the ascendancy.

Then, the first XI's journey to the east coast went from bad to worse when both openers succumbed to the pressure much too cheaply and nightwatchman Steven Patterson was unable to fuflil his remit. On the third day, just as Gale and Jaques had taken the hosts away from a big collapse, Phil Jaques again produced his party trick of being dismissed after he had done the hard work and played himself in. However, fear not fellow-Tykes, because along stepped the promising Gary Ballance. Living up to his name, this trusty middle-order performer redressed the balance in this contest as he and his captain amassed a fifth wicket stand just shy of three hundred runs. This display of heroics enabled the white rose to bypass Nottinghamshire's fine first innings total and give our puny bowling attack a dash at their batsmen on the final afternoon.

On a lighter note, Adil Rashid followed the huge stand with a duck egg, which emphatically swam against the tide of runs that have flowed from his bat over the course of the last month. I guess that if you are going to flop with the bat, you might as well do it in the midst of a five hundred-plus score! This is infinitely more preferable though probably more embarrassing than flopping in the midst of a low innings total. It's when your team is in a crisis, that a big contribution from the middle order is much required. Fortunately for Rashid and the home contingent, the outstanding stand between Ballance and Gale not only rescued Yorkshire but gave rise to faint hopes of a possible innings triumph.

A draw was the predictable outcome which was realised. As for the heroic Andrew Gale, he was touted a few years ago as a future England player. Regrettably he shares the same affliction as Adam Lyth, namely a frustrating inconsistency which undermines possible greatness!

YORKSHIRE versus Nottinghamshire; 5-8 June 2013; at Scarborough; YORKSHIRE won the toss.

Nottinghamshire first innings: 443 (Lumb 135, Mullaney 79, Franks 70; Patterson 3-74, Rashid 3-98)

YORKSHIRE first innings: 572 for 8 declared (Gale 272, Ballance 141, Jaques 51; Fletcher 3-85, Patel 3-143)

Nottinghamshire second innings: 105 for 1 (Cowan 53*)

Match drawn;