Tykes take the Whole Damn Thing

Undefeated
By Grockle
April 23 2005

An undefeated John Francis is the only thing to take out of this game as Yorkshire finish us off. An appalling batting performance left us an innings and a few short, only brightened by the first Someret batsman to carry his bat in a very long time. What were the rest of them doing?

v Yorkshire @ Headingley CC2 21 April 2005

Matt Wood (ours not theirs) loses out to John Francis for this match with Sanath Jayasuriya walking out in a Somerset shirt (of some kind) for the first time...albeit one day late because of the rain.  Hoggard and Harvey are the men to watch but this is a solid batting side...it's what the bowling can do that is the decider here.

Marcus wins the toss and surprisingly puts them in (do you do that at Headingley?  I always thought you batted at Leeds no matter what).  It is already a three day game so Banger must see something in the pitch and hope for early wickets and a first innings collapse.  A first wickte 63 run partnership in 62 minutes suggests that he may have been mistaken and the collapse looks a long way off by the time Jaques becomes Johnson's victim.  Laraman gets the hopes back up though with McGrath's wicket quickly with Yorkshire in the 80's.

Unfortunately. their Matt Wood and Lumb hold us up for another 40+ partnership (Lumb goes to Caddick at 130) and Wood puts on another 47 with Harvey before he goes to Nixon 5 short of his hundred.  177 for 4 isn't too bad and the West Indian paceman gets us all in a lather as he takes out the captain Craig White after only 2 balls and then has Dawood for 5 at 189.  We all loook for a Somerset innings today but Harvey, once again, has other ideas.  What is it he likes about us?

Although Caddick keeps the pressure on by taking out Dawson at 227, by that time Harvey is set and Bresnan seems to have decided to anchor one end and let the Aussie have his way with us.  McLean comes in for some stick as Somerset seem to try and buy his wicket by keeping the paceman on but he just keeps on accumulating and by the end of the day he has 'choked' this game with an excellent 161 of 179 balls with 100 of them coming in boundaries.  Bresnan is 2 shy of his 50 and although the bowling figures show commendable performances by Laraman, Johnson and Blackwell (and 7 overs from Sanath) we are looking at a 400 plus total with two batsmen to come and only 2 days remaining.

Batting performance please lads...don't let Hoggard and Harvey make a mockery of a decent 2005 start.

Day 2

The good news is that Hoggard and Harvey didn't rip through the Somerset batting.  But, unfortunately, that is where the good news stops because Kruis and Bresnan did and we are staring defeat firmly in the face after we have the 2005 day to foget with the bat!

Harvey added 238 with Bresnan before Laraman got Mr B for 74 and although Hoggard only got 4, he waited around for the Aussie to get his double century before Craigg White brought them in wiith the fall of Hoggy's wicket (I think) at 501 for 9.  Big big ask.  But no indication yet that we would have any more trouble with the ball than they did.

Our first indication of problems was when Marcus T did not come out to bat with Jayasuriya.  Baby was on the way and he'd shot off to be with mum (both doing well I hear so Congratulations for that at least).  Should he have played? Who the hell knows.  He did and then couldn't bat so Frank J came out with the mighty Sri Lankan.

Not so mighty though when SJ returned 3 balls later for a mighty 0.  It didn't get better either.  Francis, Burns and Hildreth were all back with only 68 on the board and although Blackwell took the score over three figures it looked llike no-one was going to stay around at Leeds for innings 1 to be significant.  A few 20's and a bit of a wag in the tail didn't help and we returned to the pavilion to follow on with a measly 182 on the board.  Kruis and Bresnan with three wickets each stole the show leaving the Headingley faithful almost as shell shocked as our batting elite.

So we come out again, still without Banger and over 300 runs behind.  SJ smites a boundary this time but lasts only 11 balls in his Gooch-like debut and returns to the 'warmth' of the dressing room for 7.  Closely followed by Mike Burns who doesn't trouble the scorer in his 5 ball innings...which is 2 balls more than James Hildreth who is back in before Burnsy gets his pads off.  10 for 3 for Heaven's sake!

Ian Blackwell finds himself in the saviour role for the second time in a week as he joins John Francis to try and shore up this sinking hulk of a performance.  There is a little hope as the two start to stabalise the wreck after Kruis has all but scuppered it with 3 for 13.  But White still has something to say on day 2 and Ian will not be joining us for the end of this match.  White has him caught behind and it is up to Aaron Laraman and the fighting Francis to try and keep this ship afloat with water coming over the gunnels!!

At the end of play it is 109 for 4.  Still 210 runs behind wea re facing an innings defeat on a game where we've lost one whole day to rain.  Mr Garraway is about to start earning his money if he can get his men up for the fight tomorrow and repair the damage of this before the one day game on Sunday.  Nothing to crow about from a Somerset point of view today other than the grit of Frank Junior and the 56 added by the bowlers in the lost cause of the first innings.

Don't hurry back Marcus. This one is probably a dead duck after one pm tomorrow.  Our unbeaten Championship form is about to disappear and we had all better hope this is the worst we'll see with the bat in 2005.

Day 3

Forgone conclusion really but we shouldn't take away the fight that John Francis put up in attempting, almost single handedly, to stave off defeat.  Despite a game 53 from and a 130 run partnership with Aaron Laraman plus a dubious decision that gave Rob Turner out caught behind off what seems to have been an arm at 213, we were well and truly thumped.  An innings and 44 runs is not a level of defeat that you want in your second match...especially when it effectively took place in 2 and a half days.

So, Mark Garraway and Rob Turner have to pick the squad up and come out fighting in the one day game tomorrow and then put this trip behind them and return to give the same kind of hiding to Essex in mid week.  Now we can gauge what difference there is this season, if any.  This match must have dented confidence.  In the past that has led to abject failure after abject failure as the side has lost the will to win.  This season has to be different and it will be interesting to see if this galvanises the players to get back to winning ways or rattles their collective and individual confidence levels.

We don't have long to wait.