white-lightning wrote:

coolerking wrote:

Is it the pitch? Or great bowling? Or bad batting?

The same pattern for years: Basically bad batting.

No. Last week was bad batting. This is genuinely tough batting conditions. Headingley, particularly when the clouds are in, is a great bowl first ground.

India (not a bad team) got rolled here batting first a fortnight ago.

I think it’s a bit of conditions and poor batting. Headingley with clouds on the first day is notoriously tough. Ask India a week or 2 ago, and even the Ben Stokes miracle came off the back of being ripped through in a poor first innings.
The ball was definitely moving, not just in the air but off the pitch, so conditions were tough. Even to the point the bounce was a little uneven. Also their bowlers are just perfectly suited for those conditions, and they’ve exploited them well all season.
But also technically we struggled, hard hands, not sure where our off stump was, getting caught on the crease, issues you see most touring teams have when they come over here not used to a swinging, seaming ball.

Thought Burgess was superb, wanted to get down the pitch to negate the swing, but played the ball with soft hands under his eyes, knowing in those conditions you will edge it, so make sure it goes wide or doesn’t carry. Then attacked when it was just Norwell left.

Perhaps the earlier pessimism was a bit unfounded. Yorkshire 65 for 5 now, with only Ballance holding us up (so far!). Woakes & Norwell doing what Patterson & Coad did earlier.

I miss the old days of watching batsman actually score 100s and decent partnerships

Whether its batsman just don't have the technique or bowling friendly pitches, it's not looking good for finding the next round of high quality batsman

They mentioned during the Test series that for the past 4 or so years bowlers have been putting the ball in the right areas with more consistency than at any other time since they started tracking this kind of thing. We're in a bit of a golden era for seam bowling at all levels I think.

Pitches are definitely spicier, most counties are leaving a bit on it now in red ball and produce absolute roads in white ball cricket. And if your playing the majority of your red ball cricket in April/May and September the bowlers are always going to be in the game in quite a big way. It's why England are struggling to produce a quality spinner, the time of year we play is just not conducive to dry pitches and gradually wear and encourage spin bowling.

I think batsmen play (and leave) swing bowling well, unless it's late swing. Seam movement, that bit of nibble, is a nightmare though. Ben Coad has got a serious first class record and I bet he don't bowl much quicker than 78mph. Any seam movement though he finds it.

Great fightback from us. Obviously the conditions have helped both sides but you still have to bowl well. I'd have us ahead at this stage.

Yeah we've shown some character, shame we had to come off as it looked as though Miles had just found a nice bit of rhythm.

Yeah the last 2 overs from Miles were unplayable. A couple you could just watch the keeper and cordons reaction, and know they were serious deliveries.

It’s Yorkshire, in September, at the end of the day, you’d be surprised if the bat dominated. But Burgess and Balance have shown the others that there is a better way to play.

I agree that batting looked really difficult. If conditions continue that way, there will surely be a definite result.

Any sort of lead could be gold dust. It looks tricky again out there today.

Wow. That couldn't have gone much better for us. Lead by 47.

Great start to the day!

Here comes the collapse...Benjamin really needs to work on his patience.

Exiled Bear wrote:

Here comes the collapse...Benjamin really needs to work on his patience.

We don't tend to do things by halves.

Major collapse to 33/4.

Lamb...I remain unconvinced. 25 now and averaging 28 in the Championship, not good enough

I’m having a day at Taunton today and the Somerset batting looks as fragile as the Bears’. Next week’s match could be over in a couple of days although I think Gary Barwell produces better pitches that have a balance between bat and ball. So maybe give it three days.

Hain faced 2 balls and was out twice.

Indeed. But they were both snorters.

Hain, Lamb, and Benjamin in 2 innings have scored a combined total of 28 runs. Include Rhodes and that total rises to a mighty 63.
So with 8 opportunities, 4 of our top 5 have scored a total of 63 runs.
Include Sibley, the entire top 5 in 2 innings scored 109.
To put that in perspective Burgess scored 103 by himself.
Hopefully Bresnan, Miles and then Norwell can get a lead beyond 200.

Tea came at a bad time for us.

That's a stunning finish to the day from Bres. 7 wickets to take tomorrow, although the weather's going to be ropey apparently.