Brooks strikes!

By Gary Watton
September 1 2015

Just like dear old Australia before them, Somerset demonstrated that it is possible to lose a first-class fixture on the very first morning, if your batsmen just happen to capitulate. Losing eight wickets by lunch on day one was a recipe for annihilation - and so it proved. The second innings collapse on the third morning was if anything even more spectacular. This is something that Yorkshire are not accustomed to against Somerset, as this county has been difficult to defeat in recent years. However, on Tuesday and again on Thursday, the Tykes' seam bowlers simply tore through a surprisingly fragile batting order.

Funnily enough, some non-Yorkshire/anti-Yorkshire person sneered on the BBC's cricket website during the fifth Ashes test that the Yorkshire England players (presumably Lyth, and maybe Bairstow and Ballance?) were nothing to write home about. Well, if non-Tykes don't want the England team to be overloaded with folk from the white rose county, then it's time that their county and other counties stopped collapsing against Yorkshire's challenge! Quite frankly, while the English champions continue to rout all and sundry, it logically follows that Yorkshire players will be represented in abundance in the national team. 

Well, the Championship leaders have an extra day to rest or prepare for the visit of Gloucestershire on Sunday in the One-Day Cup semi final. I suspect that they will prove a distinctly tougher nut to crack for the top county in England. Meanwhile, the champions are moving menacingly close to back-to-back championships. It will be a minor miracle if their imminent triumph is averted.

YORKSHIRE versus Somerset; at Leeds; Tuesday the first to Thursday the third of September 2015. YORKSHIRE won the toss.

Somerset first innings: 110 (Brooks 5-35)

YORKSHIRE first innings: 391 (Bairstow 91, Ballance 91, Lyth 62; C.Overton 4-64, Gregory 3-75)

Somerset second innings: 155 (Hildreth 57; Sidebottom 3-32, Patterson 3-43)

YORKSHIRE won by an innings and 126 runs. YORKSHIRE twenty-two points, Somerset two points.

Lyth - Back in the bosom of his county cricket comfort zone, the England misfit took five catches and hit a decent half century against this non-Australian attack! 

Lees - Ten runs from a seventy-three minute stint is totally unacceptable. Lees is going backwards in four-day cricket. His place in the team should be reviewed.

Ballance - Following a century in his previous Championship match, the England reject was amongst the runs again. An England recall is definitely on the cards.

Gale - Five runs from 29 balls was a dismal failure. The decision to play captain Gale ahead of Jack Leaning proved to be a dubious one.

Patterson - Five wickets for eighty-five and a nightwatchman effort of forty-four represented a good return for Yorkshire's unlikely all-rounder!

Bairstow - Eleven fours and one six flowed from his bat during his three-hour performance. Bairstow continues to have a Bradmanesque summer!

Finch - A trifle fortunate to be preferred to Leaning, the big-hitting Aussie merely managed to contribute thirteen runs and two second innings catches.

Bresnan - Tim took three wickets, costing forty-four runs, from seventeen overs. He's probably endured more arduous sessions bowling in the nets.

Middlebrook - Such was the form of the seamers, that James didn't even get to bowl a single ball! He did at least weigh in with 23 runs in a sixty-run partnership.

Brooks - The recalled headband warrior was the first innings catalyst and ended with impressive match figures of seven wickets, costing eighty-four runs.

Sidebottom - Nineteen overs yielded only forty-nine runs and produced five wickets. If only all contests were as straightforward for the swing bowling maestro!

AVERAGES

BATSMEN (minimum requirement - one hundred runs):

Bairstow - 107.10; 1071 runs; highest score - 219 not out; five centuries and five fifties

Bresnan - 54.69; 711 runs; highest score - 169 not out; two centuries and three fifties

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

Leaning - 46.18; 785 runs; highest score - 123; three centuries and two fifties

Ballance - 44.43; 311 runs; highest score - 165; one century and one fifty

Finch - 41.33; 124 runs; highest score - 73 not out; one fifty

Maxwell - 40.67; 244 runs; highest score - 140; one century

BEST BOWLERS (minimum requirement - ten wickets):

Sidebottom - 17.5; 34 wickets; best bowling: 6-34

Brooks - 20.51; fifty-five wickets; best bowling: 5-35

Middlebrook - 20.91; eleven wickets; best bowling: 5-82

Patterson - 22.16; forty-three wickets; best bowling: 5-11

Plunkett - 28.92; twelve wickets; best bowling: 4-61

Rashid - 29.4; 25 wickets; best bowling: 4-48

Bresnan - 32.29; 34 wickets; best bowling: 5-85