An Awful Capitulation

The likelihood that Yorkshire will not make a successful defence of their County Championship looks increasingly ominous. They have struggled a few times to bowl teams out this year, and the continued absence of Ryan Sidebottom was particularly felt when the hosts failed to make any early inroads against an excellent Middlesex team. Furthermore we really could have done with Adil Rashid's expertise at running through a tail. However, more than anything it is the Tykes' batting which again looks brittle, and is all the more fragile if one or two prominent batsmen are dismissed.

Gale, Rhodes, and Williamson all deserve to be dropped. Lyth's form is erratic and Lees is hitting some runs but not delivering any mammoth totals. Suddenly, we seem short on reinforcements, having been decimated by England call-ups. I guess that we have now become victims of our own success.

On a more cheery note, at least our England contingent have distinguished themselves in the one-day series against Sri Lanka. In the last one-day international, every wicket that fell was taken by a Yorkshire bowler, except for one run out which was the result of the agile Jonny Bairstow. Joe Root also hit a 97 during the series.

The Phoenix will now try and belatedly ascend their Twenty20 charts but have a difficult assignment against Birmingham Bears on Friday. At least Gale won't be available for that fixture, and frankly it would be no loss if the well-paid Williamson was absent too.

YORKSHIRE versus Middlesex; at Scarborough; Sunday the 3rd to Wednesday the sixth of July; YORKSHIRE elected to bat first.

YORKSHIRE first innings: 406 (Ballance 132, Bresnan 63, Lees 63; Franklin 3-62, Roland-Jones 3-88, Murtagh 3-100)

Middlesex first innings: 577 (Eskinazi 157, Franklin 99, Roland-Jones 79*, Bailey 62; Brooks 5-137)

YORKSHIRE second innings: 167 (Roland-Jones 3-34, Murtagh 3-44)

Middlesex win by an innings and four runs. YORKSHIRE four points, Middlesex 21 points.

Lyth - A rapid 23 in the second innings might have been a brief, crowd-pleasing cameo, but he really needed to occupy the crease and bat out for a draw.

Lees - Eighty-nine runs was a decent return, but he seems incapable of producing a huge innings. Even when he reaches fifty, he never seems to be invulnerable.

Williamson - Caught behind in each innings for a match total of thirty-two runs is pathetic for our overseas player. He's really not earning his huge salary.

Ballance - GB has earned an England recall, although he still isn't back to his best. Unfortunately he wasn't able to rescue Yorkshire on the final afternoon.

Gale - Why is he in the team? Like Brearley before him, Galey's captaincy is his one redeeming feature. Two scores of seven are totally unacceptable. Drop him!

Bresnan - At the very least Tim should be batting above the inept Gale. Bresnan nearly saved the Tykes on the final afternoon. His batting remains quite superb.

Rhodes - He's had numerous outings in the last eighteen months and not justified his selection. Will would be better off transferring to a Division Two county.

Hodd - Forty-three runs in the match was just satisfactory. He never managed to take a catch and is a poor substitute for the badly missed Bairstow.

Rafiq - The recalled Rafiq bowled 21 overs at a cost of 99 runs. He did at least bat for an hour on the final afternoon, but alas he ran out of partners.

Patterson - Steven had a horror show, his bowling cost 119 runs from 29 overs. His batting was scarcely any better, and he dropped a vital catch off Roland-Jones.

Brooks - JB managed 25 runs with the bat. He also took five wickets, but his economical bowling figures were undone during the final morning's onslaught.

BATSMAN CHARTS (minimum of one hundred runs)

Bairstow: average - 88.83; 533 runs; two hundreds

Root: average - 80; 240 runs; one hundred

Bresnan: average - 58; 290 runs; three fifties

Plunkett: average - 47; 329 runs; one hundred, two fifties

Rashid: average - 40.12; 321 runs; three fifties

BEST BOWLERS (minimum of ten wickets)

Patterson: average - 26.22; 27 wickets

Rashid: average - 34.56; eighteen wickets

Brooks: average - 37; twenty-two wickets