There is a contention that there is no finer place in the land to watch or play county cricket than Scarborough in mid-summer. The holiday-season spectators make their way jauntily along the North Marine Road, as ever they have, sufficient in their numbers, – around 3,500 for the first day of this match – to create intimacy where at Lord’s, say, they would be lost. The sun shone too, for a change, even if there was still an east coast nip in the wind.
There was plenty of entertainment on a pitch that began sluggishly, as if rubbing its eyes after rousing from a slumber, before livening up during the early part of the afternoon, with the clouds rolling over for a while.
Middlesex, who lost the toss, were made to work hard for their success as first Alex Lees, with a robust 63, made the most of the morning passivity in the surface and later, with the sun out once more, there was a substantial fifth-wicket partnership of 126 between Gary Ballance and Tim Bresnan that tilted things a little back in Yorkshire’s favour after they had slumped to 131 for four midway through the afternoon. They reached 291 for five by the close.
Ballance, who hitherto had not enjoyed a profitable time since his hundred in the champion county match in Abu Dhabi during March, battled his way to a well-constructed, unbeaten 106; his century, from 202 balls, reached with his fifteenth and sixteenth boundaries taken from successive deliveries from Tim Murtagh.
The batsman’s delight was evident although the innings may not be sufficiently significant in itself to alert the England selectors as they mull over someone to bat at No3 in the first Test against Pakistan, but it was a very good effort against a quality Middlesex seam attack. His idiosyncratic technique against the seamers remains, advantage of which the Pakistan left-arm pacemen would surely take.
Bresnan, meanwhile, whose career has undergone a renaissance with a conversion from a bowler who bats to the reverse, drove the ball crisply and when given the opportunity was on to a resounding pull shot in a flash. He was unable to convert his third half century in five innings to three figures, bowled, as he was, driving loosely at Murtagh and the second new ball, but he received generous acclaim from the crowd as he made his way back to the pavilion.
The pick of the bowlers was Murtagh, operating from the Pavilion end and who collected three of the five wickets to fall with his clever use of swing. There was, too, an encouraging spell during the afternoon from Steven Finn, striding down the slope from the Trafalgar Square end, during which he managed to rattle Ballance and Bresnan at times. Certainly there was evidence of a returning rhythm although the pace and bounce he was getting was wasted at times by the line he employed.
Toby Roland-Jones was a disappointment, however, after some excellent early-season form, awkward looking where he had been smooth, and definitely down on pace as a consequence.
Murtagh did get Middlesex off to an ideal start by having Adam Lyth caught behind from the first ball of the match and just when Kane Williamson looked to be bedding in for the day, he too was caught behind, off James Franklin, and like Lyth, did so with an indeterminate attempt to leave the ball alone.
Lees, by contrast, played a powerful hand, reaching a 70-ball half century with a six over long-off, well caught in the back row of the terraces. It took some cerebral bowling from Murtagh, first tucking him up then going across his bows, to get him caught at second slip.
