Yorkshire’s overseas players are not having a great time of things and India’s Cheteshwar Pujara kept with the theme of ill fortune when he was dismissed in controversial circumstances at Headingley.
The Test batsman was given out after Warwickshire’s reserve wicketkeeper Pete McKay – deputising for Tim Ambrose – scooped up a rebound low down.
Yorkshire had just lost the opener Will Rhodes to Jeetan Patel’s off-spin when Pujara nicked Boyd Rankin’s second ball from the Rugby Stand End. McKay’s fumbling of the chance resulted in Rankin aborting his appeal but the visitors claimed the catch was good following the wicketkeeper’s recovery. The umpires Jeremy Lloyds and Steve Garratt conversed for a couple of minutes on the edge of the square before the latter raised the finger.
The Headingley crowd did not take it well: there was a cacophony of boos as Pujara departed at 88 for three while several supporters barracked the Warwickshire players as they left the field at close of play.
The Warwickshire director of cricket, Dougie Brown, said: “Pete was convinced he caught it, as were the slips. Teams are always trying to get a bit of an edge but we are not cheats. We play in a proper way, with a decent spirit and we try to look after the game because we know if you don’t that it can come back and bite you.
“Yes, OK Pujara is a world-class player, and we would be delighted to see the back of him, but we do not want to cheat somebody out. It was controversial because it wasn’t a clear-cut decision but the umpires have ruled in our favour and we are quite happy the right decision has been reached. These things always look worse when the crowd are involved as well.”
Pujara’s bad luck was, perhaps, not a surprise in view of the travails of Yorkshire’s other jetsetters with Glenn Maxwell and Kane Williamson surplus to requirements for their Indian Premier League teams, and Aaron Finch recovering from hamstring surgery in Melbourne.
Wickets are precious on pitches as flat as this, and so Warwickshire’s three so far are a decent return. Scoreboard pressure on “moving day”, as teams refer to day three, could yet put them in a position to inflict only a fourth defeat on Yorkshire in 53 County Championship matches.
That Warwickshire are in such a position is chiefly down to Ian Westwood, who anchored the innings with a career-best 196. James Middlebrook denied him the double hundred by taking his 50th first-class wicket for Yorkshire.
Middlebrook’s off-spin reaped two further successes but it was Tim Bresnan, who claimed his first five-wicket haul for three years, who stood out among the home attack. It was only the seventh such haul of his career, and provided dividends for the remedial work he underwent with Jason Gillespie last winter.
Concerned that the injury niggles that have disrupted Bresnan’s recent seasons were caused by jumping into the crease from a wide position thereby placing extra strain on the torso – he has endured shoulder problems, a torn pectoral muscle and has to have cortisone injections in his elbow every six months – his approach was straightened to create a smoother action.
“I’ve realised I can’t get away with forcing it down now I’m getting a bit older, having had the injuries that I’ve had,” said Bresnan, who swung one through McKay early on before returning to have Patel comfortably held at mid-off. “Straightening up is something that can take the pressure off from an action point of view. It’s beneficial for my longevity.”
