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Lancashire v Yorkshire 2007 day 2 report
by John Ward


Scorecard:Yorkshire v Lancashire

DateLine: 12th August 2007

 

Lancashire enjoyed another very good, although perhaps not excellent, day in the Roses match at Headingley. They ran up a total of 517 and by the close had Yorkshire 44 for one wicket by the close, still facing an innings defeat. It was a record-breaking day for the two Lancashire Australians, Paul Horton and Stuart Law.

 

Lancashire began the day the way they meant to continue, as Paul Horton squeezed the first ball of the day from Darren Gough neatly past the slips for two. It did take a short while to build up momentum, though, but four overs later he entered the nineties with a handsome cover drive for four.

 

He found himself stuck on 99 for quite a while, tied down by accurate bowling from Jason Gillespie and Ajmal Shahzad. Finally, 48 minutes into play, he turned Gillespie to fine leg for two runs to take him to his second first-class career century; it took him 186 balls.

 

At the other end Stuart Law played a quiet supporting role for a while, gradually becoming more aggressive and taking over the role of primary aggressor while Horton continued in his anchor role. Law?s fifty came off 88 balls. Apart from their determined but failed efforts to prevent Horton?s century, the bowlers never really looked likely to take a wicket. The nearest they came was on a couple of occasions when the ball flew uppishly off the splice, but were never in real danger of reaching a fielder.

 

At lunch, Lancashire were 262 for two, with Horton on 125 and Law 76. It had been a morning of bread-and-butter cricket, moderate bowling and accumulative batting, but Lancashire were well pleased with it.

 

Law took less than twenty minutes after lunch to run to his own century, off 139 balls, with the second of three successive boundaries off his fellow Australian Gillespie, batting with ever-increasing fluency against a mediocre attack. In the following over he pulled Gough for six, and was catching Horton up rapidly. The 200-run partnership was the next landmark to be noted, taking Lancashire to 328 for two.

 

The overtaking came when both were in the 140s, with Horton having passed his previous highest score of 139, scored against Worcestershire earlier this season. Law passed 154 with a pull for six off Tim Bresnan; it took him 180 balls. Then, when the partnership reached 248, it became the highest ever stand for Lancashire against Yorkshire in any first-class match, beating that for the seventh wicket between Graham Lloyd and Ian Austin in 1997, in a friendly match ? two Lancastrians, as opposed to two Australians this time.

 

Shortly afterwards, though, the stand was finally broken, for 258. Horton, on 149 (319 balls, 19 fours), slashed at an off-side ball from Bresnan and Younus Khan at slip took a fine diving catch low to his right. It was a fine, disciplined and invaluable innings by the 24-year-old opener, who did a superb job for his team. 383 for 3.

 

Law continued to plunder the bowling ruthlessly, his powerful drives leaving the field standing. Andrew Flintoff began slowly, and on 7 was faced with a ball lobbing off his body and threatening to land on his stumps. His original solution was to thrust his helmeted head in the way to knock it aside. The next ball he thrashed through the covers for four. But he did not always look comfortable, and with 24 off 37 balls was dismissed lbw to the leg-spin of Khan, who plays for Yorkshire almost as an all-rounder. 436 for four.

 

Law duly reached his double-century just before tea, off 236 balls, and had 201 by the interval ? 125 during the afternoon session. He now had the highest individual score for a Lancashire batsman against Yorkshire, beating Reggie Spooner?s 200 not out. Lancashire had 457 for four, and Croft was unbeaten on 4.

 

There was a record he failed to attain ? on this occasion, at least ? the 211 by Maurice Leyland as the highest individual score in all Roses matches. He had 206 when he dabbed a ball from Adil Rashid to short third man, set off for a quick single and was left stranded in mid-pitch as his partner Steven Croft refused the call and Anthony McGrath fired in an accurate throw to the keeper. Law scored his runs off 250 balls, with 27 fours and two sixes. Lancashire were now 476 for five.

 

Two runs later Croft (15) was on his way, trying to leave a ball from Darren Gough that came back in to send his off stump cartwheeling; 476 for six.

 

The Lancashire innings now gave the impression of going into steady decline. Luke Sutton and Glen Chapple scored a few before Khan took another good low catch, a thick edge at first slip as Sutton (7) drove at Rashid; 496 for seven.

 

At 504, Rashid struck again, trapping an indecisive Saj Mahmood lbw for 1. Chapple tried to attack the bowling, hitting 21 off 24 balls, but then grew impatient against Rashid, leaping down the pitch to be stumped, at the second attempt, by Gerard Brophy; 505 for nine.

 

Gary Keedy and Muttiah Muralitharan decided on some rustic hitting for the last wicket, which added 12 before Keedy holed out to Andrew Gale on the midwicket boundary, off the bowling of Khan. Murali was left not out with 2, and the innings closed for 517. Lancashire led by 373 runs.

 

Yorkshire?s bowling figures were far from memorable. Rashid took three wickets for 109, and there were two each for Bresnan and Khan. Gillespie strangely bowled only 15 overs, none too badly, without taking a wicket.

 

When Yorkshire batted again, Chapple?s first ball came back and almost cut Craig White in half. The batsman, however, avoided his pair by turning the next skilfully through midwicket to the boundary. He batted soundly for 38 minutes with Joe Sayers before Flintoff came to the bowling crease. He struck in his first over, as White played indecisively to an off-cutter and played the ball on to his off stump via the inside edge and pad. He made 16 (33 for one), and petulantly slapped his stumps with his bat as he departed.

 

Gillespie came in as night-watchman and stayed until the close for 6 runs, in the company of opening batsman Joe Sayers (19), who is struggling for form. Muralitharan had a reasonable spell and always required watching, but again did not cause the consternation that is often associated with his name. Yorkshire, at 44 for one, are still 329 runs in arrears with a mammoth task on their hands.

 


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