All over at Yorkshire for the day and the Tykes will be pretty happy, reports Amy Lofthouse. From 114-3 they’ve amassed 333-7, with Leaning looking well set for another century. He’s been well supported by Bresnan and the two seem to have snuck their way for a fifty partnership. Hampshire might rue their morning session and the way they bowled to Bairstow, but it was a gem of an innings from the keeper-batsman. It’s a decent pitched too but it’s poised nicely for tomorrow.
The floodlights are on at Headingley - they’re an odd shape, as though someone has molded a bit of wire into a squiggle and stuck some lightbulbs inside it, reckons Amy Lofthouse. Hampshire are clawing their way back into the game after a sparkling century from Bairstow. As cliched as it sounds Bairstow played every shot in the book; his pulls through mid-wicket were a particular highlight. He fell two deliveries after making his 104-ball century, edging Adams behind, but his innings of 11 boundaries and three sixes will give him confidence.
Adil Rashid sadly didn’t show the same impetus as Bairstow, caught off a leading edge as he tried to whip Gareth Berg - who has been very consistent - through mid-wicket, before youngster Will Rhodes also fell to Berg as he tried to guide him down to third man. Leaning is still there and he’s been joined by Tim Bresnan, who tried to play a late cut to his first ball and narrowly avoided inside edging onto his stumps.
Frenetic is not often a description used in the context of the county championship, but it gives you a fair idea of what has being going on during the afternoon session here at The Oval, reports Richard Rae. Having been 123-3 at lunch, Leicestershire rattled along, scoring 169 runs at just about five an hour, which would have been all well and good had they not been losing their last seven wickets in the process.
First things first though, and that means huge congratulations to a young man called Lewis Hill. Leicester-born and bred, and making just his second first-class appearance, Hill, deputising for the injured Matt Boyce at the top of the order, scored a fine century, and went on to 126, off just 147 balls - two sixes and 14 fours - before being yorked by Matt Dunn after a partnership of 120 with Ben Raine for Leicestershire’s sixth wicket.
Thereafter, however, wickets fell quickly. Clint McKay was unlucky to get a delivery from Gareth Batty that stayed a little low, but the persevering Chris Tremlett finished off the innings quickly, and Surrey will be delighted to have dismissed Leicestershire for less than 300 before tea on the first day on what looks a pretty good track. Never judge a wicket until both teams have batted though.
Meanwhile at Sussex:
Tea at Headingley and that was undoubtedly Jonny Bairstow’s session, writes Amy Lofthouse. As well as striking three sixes, he near single-handedly dispatched four Fidel Edwards overs for 33 runs. His timing has been bang on and he and Jack Leaning have rotated the strike well. Leaning may have been the quieter of the two but he too has showed glimmers of aggression. He dispatched Sean Ervine for back-to-back boundaries and looks to be a strong driver of the ball.
Hampshire haven’t bowled badly but both sessions of the game have slipped away from them in the final hour. Edwards has been wasteful; one terrible bouncer was smashed high over mid-wicket by Bairstow for six, and the pressure that James Tomlinson and Ervine in particular have built has been let loose by his bowling. There’s a feeling Hampshire have bowled too short at Bairstow, including the spinner Liam Dawson, who was late cut gloriously by said batsman. It’s a good pitch - maybe a tad too flat, but Bairstow and Leaning are making the most of it.
It must be one of those days when the ball is swinging all around the country, writes Vic Marks. Wickets are falling everywhere as the Dukes ball, wine-dark in hue, hoops around.
There has been a trickle of wickets here where the Kiwis have made relatively slow progress. Mitchell Santner fell six short of a hundred and now BJ Watling, batting like a wicketkeeper, all quirks and business, is ensuring that New Zealand will have a formidable lead.
New Zealand were 263-7 when Trego shrewdly took the new ball. He has been captaining Somerset in an unusually understated way. His bowlers have at least kept the Kiwis in check. But if the ball keeps swinging, beware Wheeler.
Meanwhile I have indulged in my last Taunton carvery for a while in the enormously cheerful company of Dennis Silk, former Somerset player, warden of Radley, chairman of the TCCB and 83 years young. Currently the chief executive Guy Lavender is hopeful that there will be more carvery diners on the final day. But the way Somerset have been batting recently that cannot be guaranteed.
Bracewell just lbw and NZ are 270-8, a lead of 303.
With both Lyth and Gale gone at Headingley, Yorkshire were in a spot of bother, reports Amy Lofthouse. Lyth made a well-contstructed half-century, brought up in lovely fashion with a storming drive to the boundary, before he edged Andre Adam’s next delivery through to the wicket-keeper. With the exception of his calling skills, which are a little on the rusty side, everything else looked to be in good touch. He had a good partnership with his captain Gale, the two putting on 52 in 78 deliveries, but Gale fell shortly after as Michael Carberry took a good catch off a leading edge at point.
Jonny Bairstow is in now, playing his first Championship game of the season, and in between all the debate about whether he can play the short ball, people have slightly lost sight of how good he is. He’s taken the attack straight to Hampshire, at a point when they were on top. He’s pulled and driven, hooked Edwards for six and his moved to 25* with relative ease.
The sight of a red, white and blue trail left by the Red Arrows as they fly over the Houses of Parliament had the players looking up as they left the field here after a splendidly entertaining morning’s cricket, writes Richard Rae. The pitch is essentially a good one, but there’s been a little in it for the bowlers, so the contest is a genuine one, and all the better for that. Matt Dunn looked to beat Angus Robson for pace when he knocked out the opener’s off-stump after Mark Cosgrove had won the toss for the visitors, but Lewis Hill, in only his second first class game, and Ned Eckersley batted positively in adding 91 for the second wicket at the best part of five an over. Only when Tom Curran switched ends, from the Vauxhall to the Pavilion, and cut back his pace, did things start to happen for the Brown Caps, as the son of former Zimbabwe and Northants all-rounder Kevin found some real movement off the seam, and he picked up Eckersley off a perhaps slightly over-confident defensive push forward, well- caught low down by Jason Roy at third slip for 48.
Dunn then returned to find Cosgrove’s inside edge with a ball that swung back in to the pugnacious - is there another kind - Australian, and had Wilson, diving to his right, been able to hang on to a Hill edge off Curran, Leicestershire would have lost three wickets in the space of adding a single run. As it is, Hill went to lunch on 50, his second in as many
games, and Neil Pinner in double figutres after Dunn got a little over-excited at seeing him mis-time a hook, and fed him another couple of bouncers which were more firmly despatched to a short leg-side boundary. A large Oval crowd is keeping its eyes on the sky during the break: after the Red Arrows - or Red Sparrows as my son, then five, once called them – we’re expecting the Battle of Britain flight.
Three times in one over, Adam Lyth has wandered over to short leg to have what can only be described as a word with himself, writes Amy Lofthouse. He’s kicked the ground, hit his pad with his bat and shook his head as Hampshire gradually dry up his scoring options. Lyth is pleasing to watch; one pull through the covers in particular had the spectators cooing.
Maybe it’s because this is the first time he’s met Pujara but the calling between these two is not fantastic. Pujara is struggling as Hampshire dry up the runs – he was dropped on 12 by James Vince in the slips and he brought up Yorkshire’s 50 with a streaky edge down to third man. He also has a bad habit of advancing down the wicket after nearly every shot; he was lucky not to be run out by Sean Terry at point, who would have had Pujara out by a mile if his shy had hit.
It’s a glorious day at Headingley, writes Amy Lofthouse, where there’s plenty happening on and off the field. Liam Plunkett is in Yorkshire’s bad books today after breaching what a club statement calls its “sacrosanct internal code of conduct”. Plunkett failed to turn up to Saturday’s official photocall or the final training session afterwards, meaning he’s been relegated to 12th man duties for the game. Jason Gillespie, meanwhile, is keeping schtum on anything to do with the England head coach vacancy.
On the pitch, Alex Lees has departed early after Yorkshire won the toss and opted to bat. He fell LBW not offering a shot to left-armer James Tomlison, but future England opener Adam Lyth has shaken off any left-over jet lag. Off the mark from the very first ball, Lyth has looked to play his shots and has dealt well with the pace of the now-bouffanted Fidel Edwards. It’s one hell of a hair-do but the West Indian remains erratic. One short ball hit Pujara on the head as he ducked into it; the other, Lyth pulled high over second slip for an early boundary.
Updated
The third day of a diverting tour game begins under heavy cloud cover with New Zealand in control, albeit with six of their Test squad still in India (and Martin Guptill injured), writes Vic Marks. At least this means that this is a first-class match – unlike their second and last tour match at Worcester later this week.
The most notable contribution so far has come from someone not in the Kiwi Test squad. Yesterday Ben Wheeler, a lean 23 year old left armer, performed beautifully and classically. He bowled to a full length from over the wicket swung the ball late and Somerset’s upper order – all right-handed in the absence of Marcus Trescothick – was nonplussed. In his opening spell of seven overs he took 4-6 and five of those came from wides (a bouncer, which cleared the wicketkeeper).
Another youngster, Mitchell Santner, a willowy left-hander is batting well and he’s not in the Test squad either. Here are hints of the increasing depth of New Zealand cricket.
The ball is still swinging; Ross Taylor has just tried an extravagant shot against Jim Allenby and has been caught behind. New Zealand are 168-4, a lead of 201 runs.
Good Morning from The Oval, writes Richard Rae. It’s as good to be in your company for the first time this season as it is to be here at this marvellous ground, watching the players of Surrey and Leicestershire prepare for a match which given the pretty good forecast for the next few days, may see one of them break their duck for the season.
Or in Leicestershire’s case, for the past two and a bit seasons: the Foxes’ winless streak in the county championship has now reached 35. On paper, this is not the place where that streak is likely to come to an end: arriving to see Messrs Sangakkara and Pietersen having a gentle net cannot have been overly encouraging for a Leicestershire bowling attack which, while much strengthened by the arrival of Clint McKay, failed to take 20 wickets once last season. They did bowl Northants out twice this season, though, albeit in defeat, and there’s not question that under Mark Cosgrove’s bellicose leadership, they’re much less likely to be steam-rollered than they’ve been for a while. And of course Surrey, so far at least, are themselves struggling to bowl sides out twice.
Team news: Surrey are leaving out Stuart Meaker, so it’s Burns, Ansari, Sangakkara,
Pietersen, Davies, Roy, Wilson, Batty, Curran, Tremlett (for the first time this season) and Dunn.
Leicestershire are Hill, Robson, Eckersely, Cosgrove, Pinner, O’Brien, Raine, McKay, Taylor, Naik, Shreck. The Foxes have won the toss, and will bat. I’ll be a little surprised if Lewis Hill, deputising for the injured Matt Boyce, opens - he’s a young wicket-keeper batsman making only his second first class appearance, but he acquitted himself well against Kent last week, scoring a half-century in his first innings, so we’ll see shortly.
