Match report day 2: Hampshire v Yorkshire in Championship 2004 by John Ward

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Scorecard:

Hampshire v Yorkshire

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Overnight: Yorkshire 34/1 off 10.4 overs (Jaques 22*, Taylor 5*)
Lunch: Yorkshire 42/1 off 14.2 overs (Jaques 27*, Taylor 6*)
Tea: Yorkshire 167/2 off 56 overs (Jaques 120*, Lumb 13*)
Close: Yorkshire 268/3 off 88 overs (Jaques 193*, Craven 15*)

 

After another frustrating morning at the Rose Bowl, play between Hampshire and Yorkshire continued unbroken for the final two sessions, and the story was of the Australian batsman Phil Jaques from beginning to end, with the other 21 players reduced to the roles of anonymous extras. Jaques, unbeaten with 193 off 247 balls at the close, had by close of play scored 72% of the Yorkshire total to date, and 77.5% of the runs off the bat.

 

Everybody was pleasantly surprised to see a fine, if windy, morning, with no indication of when ‘normal service’ would be resumed. It did not take long. A rogue cloud began dumping its load after only 10 minutes and 14 legitimate deliveries, with Yorkshire 41 for one. Phil Jaques and Chris Taylor were on 27 and 5 respectively.

 

It was a short sharp shower and required some mopping up. 50 minutes were lost before the players were able to take the field again, and bowled three balls. Then, surprise! Down came the rain again, heavily, before a further run had been scored.

 

Play started for the sixth time in this match at 12.35, and stopped again at 12.38. Five more balls had been delivered and Taylor had taken a single. One wonders what is the record lowest number of deliveries for six consecutive spells of play in a first-class match? Lunch was taken early.

 

Then the weather finally tired, temporarily, of playing games and allowed play to continue in the afternoon under sunny skies. Taylor, after taking guard for seven separate sessions of play, finally recorded the first boundary of his innings and moved into double figures.

 

But batting was far from easy, with the wind apparently blowing the ball around and the batsmen played and missed frequently. In the still developing Rose Bowl Ground, there are still only small and temporary press facilities, and the positioning far beyond the long-off boundary often made it difficult to tell exactly what was going on. Quality press facilities usually seem to be low on the priorities of newly built cricket grounds, and the news was that, when a proper press box is built at this ground, it will be at the far end of the ground – out of sight of the scoreboards! In common with at least two Test match grounds.

 

Dimitri Mascarenhas came on to bowl, sporting a massive pink stripe from the front to the back of his head. Was he supporting some unsuspected football team in the European Championship, or has he had a falling-out with a traditional American Indian? All the breaks failed to affect Jaques, though, who flicked Mascarenhas off his toes for six to pass fifty. It took him only 73 balls, spread over seven sessions.

 

He continued to hit confidently, especially on the leg side, and Mascarenhas had to leave the field after a vain attempt to stop another boundary resulted in his cutting his face as the ball bounced back off the boundary rope. Taylor played a valuable supporting role, scoring just 22 of their partnership of 115, before pushing forward to Michael Clarke, bowling left-arm spin, and being caught by Derek Kenway at second slip. Yorkshire were 125 for two.

 

Shaun Udal also suffered under the Jaques sweep, and another six took him to 98. In the next over an on-drive off Billy Taylor took him to his century, out of a total of 134 for two, and off 134 balls. It was the first championship century to be scored against Hampshire this season. After that he settled down for a bit of a breather, playing more quietly for the tea interval. Had he been a little more record-conscious, he might have tried a little harder to speed up; 120 at tea, he had scored 93 in the afternoon session.

 

Afterwards he continued to accumulate ruthlessly, mainly on the leg side, on-driving, turning the ball square, and occasionally pulling and sweeping, but the Hampshire bowlers now gave him less scope for those strokes. Occasionally he would drive on the off side or through the covers.

 

Michael Lumb took over Taylor’s job as sleeping partner, and when a swing to leg for four took him to 17, it was noted in the pressbox as the first really aggressive stroke to come from the other end all day. On 145 Jaques played perhaps his first false stroke, a slash that flew off the edge off Taylor, past the slips, to the boundary. Later in the over an on-drive took him past 150.

 

Soon afterwards Lumb fell for 18, edging a low catch to the keeper off Taylor, and Yorkshire were 211 for three. Vic Craven continued the sleeping partner role, while Jaques became becalmed on 175 before pulling Mullally for the sixth six of his innings, all of them over the shorter boundary at the eastern side of the ground.

 

His 193 is two runs short of the ground record of 195 by Murray Goodwin for Sussex in 2001, and that will be his immediate target on the third day. Yorkshire scored their runs at just over three an over and will doubtless continue on the third morning, but will need some fine play, dry weather and probably deterioration of the pitch to bowl out the home side, weak batting and all, in the two remaining days.

 

(Article: Copyright © 2004 John Ward)