Yorkshire’s wait for a first Vitality County Championship win of the season continues after they were thwarted by Glamorgan centurions Colin Ingram and Sam Northeast on day four at Headingley.
The county were unable to turn their early dominance into victory number one of 2024, instead having to settle for a fourth draw in five matches in Division Two this season.
Glamorgan started the day on 171-3 in their second innings, 127 runs behind. Captain Northeast was 46 against the county he played three times for whilst on loan in mid-2021 and Ingram 43.
The pair went on to share 210 – their county’s highest ever fourth-wicket partnership against Yorkshire in first-class cricket. Ingram made 113 off 223 balls, while Northeast was similarly patient with 142 not out off 336 balls.
Joe Root and Adam Lyth struck twice each with their off-spinners, and the game was starting to get interesting at 372-7 early in the afternoon with a Glamorgan lead of 74 when lightning and then thunder forced the players off just before 4.20pm.
However, the main factor in this result proved to be the impressive rearguard efforts of Ingram and, in particular, Northeast.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Sam Northeast on the way to a fourth day century. He played three matches on loan at Headingley in mid-2021.
Yorkshire took 16 points from this fixture, just as they did in last weekend’s draw against Derbyshire here. That’s the maximum haul available for a stalemate. Glamorgan claimed 10 points from their fourth draw in a row.
Yorkshire’s hunt for wickets was spearheaded by spin duo Dom Bess and Dan Moriarty, who struck four times apiece in the first innings and once apiece at the start of the second.
However, four spinners in all were used, and bowled 120 of the 138 overs in the second innings.
Seamers Ben Coad and Matthew Revis took the new ball midway through the morning, with Matthew Fisher out of action having injured his left ankle in the field during the third afternoon yesterday.
Ingram and Northeast were largely watchful, happy to eke out the runs and take time out of the game.
Here are a duo who have started the season in impressive fashion.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Dom Bess and Yorkshire were frustrated today.
Northeast is the leading run-scorer in the division, the only player to have topped 550 runs in this season’s Championship. In fact, he is the top-scorer across both divisions with 561.
Ex-South Africa international Ingram has posted 467.
Both have two centuries to their name this season, including Northeast’s 335 against Middlesex last month when he posted the highest ever individual score at Lord’s.
Ingram did hit Revis for three successive boundaries against the new ball en-route to reaching his hundred before lunch, off 202 balls.
Glamorgan were 277-3 at lunch, 21 in arrears.
Northeast brought up his hundred during the opening stages of the afternoon, off 226 balls. However, Ingram had become the first wicket to fall by then – 303-4 and a visiting lead of five runs.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Joe Root celebrates taking the wicket of Glamorgan’s Chris Cooke.
Ingram tried to take Root over the top and miscued to a back-peddling Shan Masood from mid-off.
There was further success when Chris Cooke played on against the same bowler six overs later – 329-5, a lead of 31 with a session-and-a-half still remaining in the match.
Lyth then trapped Tom Bevan and James Harris lbw either side of tea as the score fell to 370-7, a visiting lead of 72.
Unfortunately, the lightning and thunder then forced the players off the field to ultimately finish a fixture which was Harry Brook’s last before England T20 World Cup duty.
Brook has scored two hundreds in his five early-season appearances.
Yorkshire have a weekend free of action before facing Sussex at Hove, starting a week on Friday.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Adam Lyth celebrates with team-mates after taking the wicket of Glamorgan’s Tom Bevan. Here he’s high-fiving Harry Brook.
