Alex Lees narrowly missed out on a piece of cricket history but did help Yorkshire take a significant step towards county folklore.
Lees, the in-form Yorkshire opener, fell a dozen runs shy of becoming the first batsman to score two hundreds in a first-class match at Headingley as he set up a fourth-innings target in tandem with Adam Lyth. Lees departed in the 80s – just as Warwickshire’s Ian Westwood did here last year – when he edged Ryan Pringle’s off-spin half a dozen overs before the declaration.
In between Lyth did reach 100, becoming the eighth player to achieve 1,000 Division One runs for the season in the process, when he effortlessly swept a six off Pringle. Another Lyth loft over the extra-cover rope – off Scott Borthwick’s leggies – preceded Andrew Gale calling his batsmen in, upon the dismissal of Gary Ballance. Yorkshire are undefeated in 21 Division One matches at Headingley; Durham were asked to score 421 to scrub the statistic.
Then, three evening wickets confirmed this as Yorkshire’s most dominant day in their quest to emulate their 1960s predecessors and secure a third consecutive County Championship pennant. Their position simply strengthened with each passing session.
They were only marginally ahead in the contest when it resumed with Durham requiring a further 106 runs to avoid the follow-on – a rather notional figure as it was never going to be enforced – and six wickets intact. With drizzle and murk blanketing the ground, conditions were not deemed suitable for bowling seam, so they were forced into bowling spin. Lyth’s loosener, a half-tracker, was pelted through wide mid-on by Jack Burnham. Things could only get better: and how they did.
A six-minute rain break on the eve of the second new ball greased the surface and liberated the vicinity from its shackle of grey cloud. Jack Brooks struck with the second ball of his spell from the Kirkstall Lane end, to remove the stubborn Graham Clark as Durham lost those half-dozen wickets for 38 runs in 78 balls. Brooks finished with the finest figures, Ryan Sidebottom the flashiest dismissals: both Burnham and Graham Onions having off-stumps cartwheeled.
“It was a great team performance, really. We knew the second new ball would be key and the way the lads bowled with it was exceptional. Hopefully we can do that again and force a win,” Lyth said.
Momentum was undoubtedly with the hosts when they went out to bat a second time for three overs before lunch and they developed it quickly through their positive approach. Lyth is a natural strokeplayer while the 2016 model Lees is a more aggressive version of his 2015 self.
The 23-year-old has made much better use of his physicality to breach four figures for the first time, striking the ball powerfully whenever opportunity has arisen. Twice when Pringle erred in length – a short one followed by a full bunger – he deposited shots into the East Stand.
Lyth, dropped on 10 by Chris Rushworth in his follow-through, said: “I knew I needed 100 to get to that thousand-mark and to do that with two games to go is nice. But I never really set goals. I hope to get as many as I can, whether it be 1,000, 1,500, whatever.”
There is a bigger prize available in the coming fortnight, though, and the kind of collective effort and skill shown on the penultimate day, across matches against their title rivals Somerset and Middlesex, will secure it.
There were a couple of landmarks for Brooks before the close: Mark Stoneman’s aborted pull providing him with his 50th Championship wicket of the season as well as the 350th of his first-class career. When Division One’s most prolific player, Keaton Jennings, nicked off in Brooks’s next over it triggered the customary wheel to long leg. And Steven Patterson, away from the ground until after tea because of a family issue, returned to leave Durham three down at the close.
