An Arundel Bore Draw

Bairstow: century man
By Gary Watton
June 19 2014

The delightful, leafy surroundings of Arundel played host to stalemate between Sussex and Yorkshire, as the Tykes in vain sought their first County Championship win over their south coast foe for a few years. In the event, Arundel was a fairly placid pitch, akin to docile Faisalabad. As a consequence, only 20 wickets fell in four days, and it would have needed two more days to achieve an outcome.

The white rose did at least inflict a batting collapse upon Sussex on the first afternoon, only to let the host county off the hook, as their tail rallied well to take their total beyond three hundred runs. In reply, Yorkshire again built a good score, but failed to accelerate the runs-scoring, a fact not helped by the cheap dismissals of Finch and Gale. The latter then declared late on the third day, but the much-vaunted Yorkshire attack failed to make early inroads into the Sussex batting line-up. As a result, the match petered out to a draw, with honours even. Both teams will no doubt recognise that although a failure to win is potentially damaging, a defeat merely hands sixteen extra points to your adversaries. Yorkshire will be looking forward to the return of Kane Williamson in July, as it appears that our spin bowling alternatives are not delivering well enough. Meanwhile Yorkshire rest atop the County Championship, joint leaders of a truly wide open tournament. Perhaps three wins from their remaining seven skirmishes might be enough to achieve the top prize.

 

Sussex versus YORKSHIRE; at Arundel; June 16th-19th; Sussex won the toss.

Sussex first innings: 316 (Wells 74, Lewis 61; Bresnan 3-81)

YORKSHIRE first innings: 470 for 7 declared (Bairstow 161*, Leaning 99, Bresnan 68, Lyth 66; Magoffin 4-81, Treadwell 3-158)

Sussex second innings: 228 for 3 (Wells 81, Hamilton-Brown 62, Nash 53)

Match drawn. Sussex 9 points, YORKSHIRE 10 points.

 

Lyth - Adam helped himself to another excellent fifty and then chipped in with two wickets and a catch on the final day. He bowled 15 overs, which only cost 40 runs.

Lees - Alex shared in another good opening stand of fifty-six runs, but he will be disappointed to then be trapped by the impressive Magoffin for twenty-two runs.

Leaning - JL is improving with each outing. This time he was cruelly denied a maiden first-class century by a reflex return catch by Treadwell.

Gale - Hot and cold Gale is blowing cold at present. He failed to win the toss and more alarmingly produced only five runs with bat in hand.

Bairstow - Following soon after his Twenty20 heroics, JB took six catches and then recorded a long-overdue big total. Hopefully he can prolong this purple patch.

Finch - Aaron took a wicket and got ample bowling practice. He missed out with the bat this time, scoring only three runs. His failing did not prove costly.

Bresnan - The big guy weighed in with plenty of runs, to supplement his three-wicket haul, thereby reinforcing his status as a useful all-rounder.

Rafiq - He only took one wicket from 38 overs, costing 110 runs. He is not as good a batsman as Rashid, but can he prove to be a more effective slow bowler?

Pyrah - RP gave another good account of himself, bowling 25 overs and taking two wickets at a cost of only fifty-four runs. He also recorded an unbeaten twenty runs.

Patterson - He took two wickets at a cost of eighty-four runs, bowling only seven out of 95 overs in the second innings. Arundel wasn't sufficiently suitable for him.

Brooks - Even prolific Jack had to make do with a mere two wickets, costing ninety-six runs. He did bowl tidily, but he too lacked penetration.