Hameed Shines

By Gary Watton
August 13 2016

This was a highly frustrating outing for the Yorkshire contingent. First of all they lost the toss and were forced to chase the ball for four sessions of toil and little reward. However just when the champions had recovered from a poor start, they let their hosts off the hook when the red rose tail wagged on the second morning with enormous vigour. Then when we batted, we struggled and failed to achieve parity or better, although we saw some welcome contributions from Gale, Lehmann, and Lees in particular. Finally a second historic century from young Haseeb Hameed propelled the home team towards an unassailable lead.

The champions were set a daunting 367 to win in only seventy-six overs. Although Lees and Lyth both batted through to afternoon tea, leaving 219 to be knocked off in thirty overs, the Tykes passed up the opportunity of an exciting finish, reckoning that they might succumb to a clatter of wickets in their drive towards the very high summit. Thus, to the surprise of many, both teams shook hands on a tame but face-saving draw, leaving each to fight another day. Gale and the YCCC brains trust appear to be reckoning on the game in hand on Middlesex as an opportunity to breach the considerable gap, but with three wins from their first eleven fixtures, it's a little fanciful to think that we will conjure at least three from our remaining five. We need to hope that the weather is constantly kind and that groundsmen from other counties are very obliging when we come to town. Middlesex can be overtaken, but there is even less margin for error than before in our increasingly wild goose chase.... 

Lancashire versus YORKSHIRE; in Manchester; Saturday the thirteenth to Tuesday the sixteenth of August; Lancashire elected to bat first.

Lancashire first innings: 494 (Hameed 114, Clark 84*, Procter 79, Jarvis 57; Bresnan 3-80, Brooks 3-81)

YORKSHIRE first innings: 360 (Lees 85, Gale 83; Jarvis 4-70, Kerrigan 3-91)

Lancashire second innings: 232 for three declared (Hameed 100*, Smith 87)

YORKSHIRE second innings: 188 for 0 (Lees 114*, Lyth 63)

Match drawn. Lancashire eleven points, YORKSHIRE ten points.

Lyth - Eighty-eight runs was a useful contribution. He reined in his cavalier instincts during the so-called run chase but was more attacking in the first innings.

Lees - 199 runs in the match was an excellent return. He completely outscored his senior partner in the second innings 'run chase'. Please keep it going Alex.

Leaning - An absence of other candidates has kept him in the team, but he could get demoted with the return of Ballance. Seven runs on a flat track was pitiful.

Gale - His four-hour vigil, featuring nine fours, was his highest score of the summer. Will it boost his flimsy confidence? Let us hope so.

Lehmann - A typically swashbuckling start from a member of the Lehmann household. Forty-six runs from fifty-three balls was very helpful from our debutant.

Bresnan - He did take five wickets, but they cost 140 runs and he failed with the bat, making only seven runs. This wasn't one of Tim's better outings.

Rashid - Adil had a match to forget. He took two wickets, costing 217 runs. He also contributed a mere sixteen runs on a very batsman-friendly pitch.

Hodd - Six catches and forty-three runs represented one of Andrew's better efforts this summer. He needs to continue to chip in with more runs from the bat.

Patterson - Steve was another player for whom the match seemed to pass by. He hit twenty runs, but could only take one wicket whilst conceding ninety-one runs.

Brooks - JB's three wickets cost 106 runs from 27 overs which appears to have been a par effort on this unsympathetic pitch. He also finished unbeaten on six runs.

Sidebottom - Ryan also suffered during the runs' spree. He could only muster two wickets, costing a total of 133 runs from thirty-three overs of hard labour.

BATSMAN CHARTS (minimum of one hundred runs)

Bairstow: average - 88.83; 533 runs; two hundreds

Root: average - 80; 240 runs; one hundred

Plunkett: average - 45.75; 366 runs; one hundred, two fifties

Lees: average - 44.79; 851 runs; two hundreds, six fifties

Lyth: average - 40.26; 765 runs; three hundreds, two fifties

BEST BOWLERS (minimum of ten wickets)

Patterson: average - 26.71; 34 wickets

Sidebottom: average - 27.55; eleven wickets

Brooks: average - 33.20; thirty wickets

Rashid: average - 33.93; 29 wickets

Bresnan: average - 38.47; fifteen wickets