Celebration time?

By Gary Watton
June 29 2015

Poor Durham had to resort to using nine different bowlers in the Yorkshire record-breaking first innings, as the deadly Bairstow-Bresnan mid-order axis despatched the red ball to all corners of the ground. How sweet it was for the Tykes to inflict such torture upon a county that has tormented us in many recent one-day skirmishes and which potentially stands between the white rose and further County Championship glory.

 In the event, Jonny and Tim made a mockery of the hosts' arrogant decision to field first. Did they honestly think that they were going to roll the champions over for next to nothing? We may be lightweights in limited-overs cricket, but we're far from limited in the four-day version. Oh well. Durham have learnt the hard way. Perhaps they believed in their own hype?

Anyhow, after the home team had made several inroads into the visitors' batting order, along came the two England rejects, JB and TB, to re-write the history books. The milestones just kept on coming. Yorkshire became the first team this season to exceed five hundred runs, itself a pitiable commentary on the efforts and pitches of les autres en Angleterre. Furthermore, the dynamic duo helped themselves to the highest seventh-wicket partnership in the history of English county cricket, eclipsing a 344 stand dating from 1902. Howzat?! Tim recorded his highest first-class score, venturing into the unknown territory of going beyond 150. Jonny managed to post his own highest first-class total, leaving himself and Bresnan with astronomical, and fully deserved, batting averages for this summer's first-class campaign. Meanwhile, the double act also shared in the highest-ever stand against dastardly Durham, surpassing the 359 of Surrey's Butcher and Ward in 2000. The 366 unbroken stand now 'stands' unbroken as the third highest seventh wicket effort in the history of first-class cricket. This monumental achievement was delivered by two Yorkshiremen for their native county, and not by prized imports from elsewhere. How cool is that?!

It was just a shame that captain Gale felt the need to declare before the dynamic duo could take their historic stand to four hundred runs ensemble. However, at least big Brezza managed to achieve thje highest-ever score for a Yorkshire CCC number seven batsman, even surapssing a recent 159 effort from Adil Rashid!

The happy outcome to such heroics, allied with a decent bowling effort, was yet another innings triumph, enabling the reigning champions to leapfrog the pretenders of Durham, and sit once more atop the English charts, with one match in hand too. The unbeaten Tykes are well placed to successfully defend their County Championship glory, but should take nothing for granted. Their form has been exceptional, even in the face of constant changes in personnel, due to international call-ups. Bravo Yorkshire!

Durham versus YORKSHIRE; at Chester-le-Street; Sunday June the 28th to Wednesday the 1st of July 2015. Durham won the toss.

YORKSHIRE first innings: 557 for six declared (Bairstow 219*, Bresnan 169*)

Durham first innings: 208 (Pringle 69*, Borthwick 54; Bresnan 3-40)

Durham second innings: 302 (Stoneman 131; Brooks 4-66)

YORKSHIRE win by an innings and forty-seven runs. Durham three points, YORKSHIRE 23 points.

Lees - Forty runs from a two and a half hour vigil was a decent effort and an improvement on several failures in recent weeks. He could do with a bigger score.

Rhodes - Will contributed to a good opening stand of fifty-six, and survived for 94 minutes, but for the umpteenth time, he failed to push on from a decent start.

Leaning - By his recent high standards, a two-hour, 91-ball innings of 28 must seem like a failure!

Gale - The captain again failed to win the toss, and still won handsomely! He was also unable to match his heroics against Nottinghamshire, merely scoring 22.

Bairstow - The wicket-keeper is in the form of his life. His monster innings featured 31 fours and one six from 268 balls in just under six hours.

Finch - Ten runs from eleven balls was a characteristically brief and puny effort. It's a pity that Cheteshwar Pujara couldn't have stayed on for much longer!

Rashid - An innings of 21 followed by match figures of four wickets, costing 120 runs, was a reasonable return, but scarcely a haedline-grabbing performance. 

Bresnan - Tim was possibly only denied a double century by the need for a declaration. He batted for exactly five hours, hitting 27 fours from 256 deliveries.

Patterson - His four wickets cost a mere 68 runs and was highly satisfactory. Only a lack of pace prevents him from being seriously considered for England duty.

Brooks - His match figures of six wickets, costing 125 runs sounds quite impressive, but he was way too expensive when bowling at the top order batsmen.

Sidebottom - Ryan chipped in with three wickets, at a cost of 98 runs, but this wasn't one of his more vintage displays.

CURRENT DIVISION ONE STANDINGS:

YORKSHIRE - played eight matches; 145 points

Durham - played nine matches; 134 points

Middlesex - played nine matches; 130 points

Warwickshire - played eight matches; 111 points

Somerset - played eight matches; 98 points

Sussex - played nine matches; 93 points

Nottinghamshire - played nine matches; 92 points

Worcestershire - played nine matches; 79 points

Hampshire - played nine matches; 74 points

AVERAGES:

Bairstow - 106; 636 runs; highest score - 219 not out; three centuries and three fifties

Bresnan - 83.5; 501 runs; highest score - 169 not out; two centuries and two fifties

Leaning - 68.5; 685 runs; highest score - 123; three centuries and two fifties

Pujara - 52.8; 264 runs; highest score - 133 not out; one century and one fifty

Gale - 39.2; 438 runs; highest score - 148; one century and one fifty

BEST BOWLERS (minimum requirement - ten wickets):

Middlebrook - 19.6; ten wickets; best bowling: 5-82

Brooks - 22.42; 38 wickets; best bowling: 5-44

Patterson - 22.46; 28 wickets; best bowling: 5-11

Rashid - 23.93; fifteen wickets; best bowling: 4-48

Sidebottom - 25.5; ten wickets; best bowling: 4-39