Big Brezza

By Gary Watton
May 29 2016

Lancashire were table-toppers with possible Championship credentials going into this local derby, but their lovely neighbours across the Pennines have managed yet again to take them down a peg or two. Not that Yorkshire's victory was entirely plain sailing. The hosts' top order batting has been dismal of late, and only a strong batting line up which effectively extends right down to Brooks at number eleven ensures that one or two individuals can eventually step up and deliver noteworthy contributions. However, the bedrock of Yorkshire's success in recent years has been big scores which have enabled us to apply scoreboard pressure. Unfortunately Gale and chums are badly misfiring at present, and it has been left to the bowlers to produce with both bat and ball. That state of affairs must not be allowed to persist, if the current champions wish to remain top of the English charts. 

YORKSHIRE versus Lancashire; Sunday the 29th of May to Wednesday the 1st of June. Lancashire chose to bowl.

YORKSHIRE first innings: 308 (Rashid 88, Bresnan 69; Jarvis 4-74, Wagner 4-75)

Lancashire first innings: 196 (Livingstone 60*; Rashid 3-37)

YORKSHIRE second innings: 236 (Plunkett 57; Wagner 4-71)

Lancashire second innings: 173 (Brown 51; Rashid 4-17, Bresnan 4-36)

YORKSHIRE win by 175 runs. YORKSHIRE twenty-two points, Lancashire three points.

Lyth - The England opener atoned for his four-ball first innings with an important 48 second time around, all the more crucial in the context of a low-scoring contest.

Lees - A duck egg and a seventeen suggest that Alex has returned to his shell. He will never play for England unless he is scoring heavily on a consistent basis.

Leaning - Scores of ten and four were woefully inadequate. He needs to kick on real soon, or else be looking for a new county at the end of the summer.

Ballance - Having failed to trouble the scorer in the first innings, he could only muster eight runs the second time. Where has the great Gary Ballance vanished to?

Gale - Only the captaincy role is keeping him in the team. Galey sadly is a fading force. He is unable to arrest any top order collapses, but only adds to the chaos.

Rashid - Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde got smashed for 37 off five overs in the first innings and then conceded only seventeen from fourteen overs in the second innings!

Bresnan - Tim's 98 runs were priceless. He also weighed in with six wickets. His return to the first eleven is definitely a real shot in the arm for the team.

Plunkett - If he could bowl as well as he bats, he would be a sensation. LP chipped in with one wicket, but it was his second-innings batting which was crucial.

Hodd - Six catches, an unbeaten fifteen, and a first innings of forty represented a very good four days at the office for our stand-in glovesman. Keep it up, sir.

Patterson - Three wickets costing a mere 48 runs from his 29 overs is what we have come to expect from our best performer of the season so far.

Brooks - JB's 34 overs only cost eighty-two runs, and in spite of bowler-friendly conditions, he found maidens easier to come by than his two wickets.

BATSMAN CHARTS (minimum of one hundred runs)

Bairstow: average - 88.83; 533 runs; two hundreds

Root: average - 80; 240 runs; one hundred

Plunkett: average - 47; 329 runs; one hundred, two fifties

Rashid: average - 40.12; 321 runs; three fifties

BEST BOWLERS (minimum of ten wickets)

Patterson: average - 24; nineteen wickets

Rashid: average - 34.56; eighteen wickets

Brooks: average - 39.82; seventeen wickets