This is the business end of the season as far as the destiny of the County Championship pennant is concerned, but also a period when individuals’ future paths are mapped out.
Scott Borthwick, the Durham batsman most responsible for holding up Yorkshire’s title push here on Wednesday, is one of those with a decision to make in that regard and will need to inform his employers of it before the end of the month. Surrey, Durham’s opponents next week, have made an offer and the 26-year-old is understood to be torn between remaining in his native north-east or following Mark Stoneman south.
Not that off-field considerations distracted him. Over two and a half hours, the left-hander played each ball on its merits, overcoming a testing start against Jack Brooks in particular, to highlight the disciplined approach to run-gathering that ensured the England selectors became interested again earlier this season.
His half-century, terminated when he deflected a Steven Patterson delivery low to second slip, left him 102 runs shy of reaching 1,000 in the Championship for the fourth consecutive season. Only Stoneman, currently on 947, has the potential to match that sequence of consistency over the coming fortnight.
Borthwick would have been to the crease earlier but for one of two drops at third slip by Jake Lehmann. Keaton Jennings, the leading run-scorer across both divisions, is not a player to reprieve. He had failed to score when Ryan Sidebottom, looking a sound bet to extend his career into a 20th season in 2017, induced an edge. The ball went straight into Lehmann’s hands at waist height and straight out again.
Adam Lyth showed his Australian team-mate how to do it with a flying grab to the left as Stoneman’s race out of the blocks was provided with its finishing line. The only other success before tea came when Yorkshire went into miserly mode. Although Jennings was put down again by Lehmann in the first of five consecutive maidens, he was snaffled by wicketkeeper Andrew Hodd off the final ball of the fifth.
Borthwick’s departure, and that of Paul Collingwood, his leg-bail removed by a nip-backer from Tim Bresnan, left things in the balance. But the second new ball is 10 overs away and the Yorkshire coach, Jason Gillespie, has backed his attack to come good following a profligate start to the innings. “If we are going to come close to being successful in this game we will have to be absolutely ruthless in our lines and lengths and get them to play shots they don’t want to play,” he said.
It was the bowlers that created a 311-run follow-on target after uncertainty over whether to stick or twist in pursuit of maximum batting points led to the sacrificial dismissal of Hodd, via a skewed square drive off Barry McCarthy. Yorkshire had whittled the equation to 25 runs from four overs and 16 from three, but were 392 for seven at the cut-off.
Steven Patterson was eighth out in the second over of McCarthy’s spell but, with four points in the bank, Azeem Rafiq and Brooks counterattacked with an enterprising stand of 47 in eight overs to enhance the prospects of a home victory on a surprisingly good surface.
