Yorkshire v Worcestershire 2011 day 4 by John Ward

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Scorecard:

Yorkshire v Worcestershire

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DateLine: 15th July 2011

 

YORKSHIRE v WORCESTERSHIRE Day 4, by John Ward at Scarborough

 

Yorkshire have generally dominated their match against Worcestershire at Scarborough, but they mace enough errors during the first three days to ensure that a relatively simple target on the fourth could not be taken for granted. Their new opening batsman, Joe Root, however, made sure of victory without alarms, playing a sound, mature innings of 52 not out to make sure that his team gained only its second championship victory of the season – both against the same opposition.

 

Yorkshire began the day needing another 54 runs to win, set a target of 134, and with seven wickets in hand. The first 45 minutes of play saw very sound play by the overnight pair, Root and Jonny Bairstow, against the bowling of Alan Richardson and Saeed Ajmal. The batsmen showed great caution against the admirable Richardson, but scored more freely from the off-spinner. They wisely concentrated on simply working the ball around the field for ones and twos, while waiting for the bad ball to put away for the boundary – and precious few did they get from Richardson. His eventual innings figures were 16 overs for 25 runs and one wicket.

 

After 23 minutes the 100 went up, and so soundly did the pair bat that they looked very likely to take Yorkshire home without being separated. Then, at 118, Ben Scott pulled off a superb stumping from the bowling of Ajmal to send Bairstow back for 33. Joe Root then reached a very well-earned fifty, while it was left to Gary Ballance, the villain in the field, to recover some of his playing reputation by driving a ball from Jack Shantry through the covers for four to end the match. Yorkshire won the match by the comparatively wide margin of six wickets, but they should have taken it by an innings 24 hours earlier, and still have work to do if they want to ensure their survival in Division One for next season.