Yorkshire CCC v Lancashire CCC - Fluent Adam Lyth provides highlights amidst Headingley gloom

Not that you’ve missed much.

This postcard from Headingley brings you not enough cricket and too much rain.

I’ve already told you about Saturday’s disappointment.

There were 13 balls bowled.

Can you believe it?

Just 13 balls.

You’d have been better off where you were – hopefully at home in the warm and dry.

The weather here yesterday was a bit better thankfully, but that’s not saying a great deal.

The first session took place beneath horribly grey skies, Yorkshire moving from 8-0 overnight to 97-4 at lunch on day two.

Lunch, incidentally, was pretty good.

I had some luncheon meat sandwiches that I made before setting off to the ground and a Braeburn apple.

It’s all rock and roll behind closed doors.

Later, I fancied a chocolate bar but, as I’d forgotten to pack a face mask and didn’t have a spare £3,200 on me in case I was arrested, I decided against nipping to a local shop.

Note to self: next time, don’t forget the muzzle.

The wickets?

Oh yes.

Well, Tom Kohler-Cadmore was the first man to go.

He’d been dropped on nine off the bowling of Tom Bailey when wicketkeeper Alex Davies dived in front of Keaton Jennings at first slip. The total then was 23-0, and it was Jennings’s catch all day long.

Kohler-Cadmore had doubled his score when, with the total 
53-0, he edged the same bowler towards the same fielder, Jennings pulling off a magnificent catch low to his left, just managing to get his fingers under the ball.

At that stage, Yorkshire were rattling along at five runs an over and Lancashire were looking largely ineffective.

Only Bailey was causing much bother.

Adam Lyth, who’d survived an adjacent-looking lbw appeal off Bailey before he’d scored, had taken a heavy toll on debutant George Burrows, who’d fed the left-hander’s leg-side game while struggling to control the swing on offer.

Lyth pulled Burrows for six and he also hit him for several fours through mid-wicket/square-leg.

It was a tough baptism for the youngster, whose opening spell was 5-0-35-0.

Slowly but surely, Lancashire pegged the run-rate. Pressure built and Danny Lamb, a bustling seamer, took two wickets in three balls with the total on 61.

First, a driving Will Fraine edged to wicketkeeper Davies, and then Tom Loten was lbw pushing forward.

Looking at the replay, it seemed to me just about conceivable that Loten was hit outside the line of off stump, but it was also easy to see why the decision was given, and the batsman appeared to have no complaints.

Young Harry Brook has batted well for Yorkshire in this shortened summer. This time, though, it wasn’t his day.

With the third ball of a new spell from the Kirkstall Lane end, Burrows bowled a filthy long hop which Brook cut straight to backward point (anywhere but there, Harry) and Yorkshire were 78-4, giving Burrows his maiden first-class wicket.

It should have been 79-5 but Jonny Tattersall was dropped on one by Jennings at first slip off Lamb.

It was a much easier catch than the one Jennings took earlier, but he seemed slightly off balance and the opportunity went.

After lunch, only one run had been added and three overs bowled when, wouldn’t you know, it started to rain.

The players were off from 2.15pm until 4.45pm, with 35 overs seized by the elements to go with the 87 they had stolen on Saturday.

It left 30 overs to be bowled when the cricket resumed, Lyth going to his half-century from 180 balls with eight fours and a six - his seventh score of 50 or more in 14 first-class games against the old enemy.

Tattersall had moved to 25 - and the total to 139 - when the wicketkeeper was fifth out, driving Jennings’s medium-pace to Steven Croft at first slip.

Tattersall batted for just under two hours and his stand with Lyth was worth 61 in 28 overs.

Yorkshire fell to 164-6 when Jordan Thompson played-on trying to withdraw his bat to a delivery from Burrows, who kept plugging away in commendable fashion.

Earlier, Lyth, too, had been bowled when his score was 45 only for George Balderson to have overstepped the front line.

Just as I was finishing off this postcard and preparing to go out for the evening, the main focus of interest was on whether Lyth could reach his century before the close of play.

Not quite.

He will resume on 86 – and Yorkshire on 178-6 – on the third morning, having played a typically fine and fluent hand.

Anyway, that’s all for now from Headingley ... I hope that this postcard finds you well ... I’m having a lovely time here behind closed doors ... And if you wouldn’t mind just feeding the cat.

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Thank you, James Mitchinson. Editor.