Lancs v Yorks Day 1 Match Report - County Champ

By JMB
September 15 2006

Lehmann rescues Yorkshire - the Tykes manage 344-9 on Day One of the County Championship Roses match at Old Trafford. Yorkshire are battling hard this season to avoid relegation and the Aussie is key to their survival bid.

To think that Yorkshire's committee did not permit an overseas player into the White Rose ranks until as recently as 1992. No wonder the team struggled badly for more than two decades.

One dreads to think how Yorkshire would have fared in these more enlightened times without Darren Lehmann. Once again the sturdy Australian left-hander stood firm with 130 yesterday as Lancashire, the new Liverpool Victoria Championship leaders, threatened destruction in the 247th Roses Match. Lehmann has become a Yorkshireman himself as near as dammit - married to the captain's sister and a key member of the championship-winning team five seasons ago. But even as an honorary Tyke, he might find staving off relegation this year as hard as winning the title.

Lancashire had decided to bowl first on a hard pitch that guaranteed lively cricket and, while Lehmann and Anthony McGrath flourished, all too predictably their colleagues proved less assured, especially against Tom Smith's fast-medium swing and seam.

Lancashire bowled very well, but Lehmann countered everything they tried. He was dropped behind when 27 - a sharp chance to Luke Sutton on his return from a broken thumb - and perhaps produced more miscues than usual, though the pull shot that ended short-leg Iain Sutcliffe's day with a blow on the right forearm was right out of the meat.

Deprived of the injured Dominic Cork, Lancashire's new-ball attack of Glen Chapple and Kyle Hogg lacked pace, if not guile, though only one wicket fell while the shine remained, Craig White flashing at a wide delivery. Joe Sayers never settled, edging frequently and once allowing a short ball from Chapple to bounce off his batting helmet.

McGrath waded straight in with lovely drives and pulls for a 54-ball fifty, but he holed out at long leg for 65, and his departure was followed by those of Sayers and Michael Lumb, both held at slip. The innings sagged again when Gerard Brophy slapped a catch to point.

Lehmann reached his fifty in 59 balls but seemed unsettled after losing Jason Gillespie, his only steady partner, and took an hour after tea gathering the 20 runs for his century, the 78th of his career.