George Hill hailed Yorkshire’s resilience as they fought hard to turn the tide late on day one having been bowled out cheaply by Hampshire at the Utilita Bowl.
Yorkshire were all out for 121 shortly after lunch having elected to bat, but they limited Hampshire to 164-5 at close, with Hill claiming two of those wickets.
He was matched by Jack White, while Dom Bess also struck once.
Their job was made harder by Ben Cliff only bowling four overs because of a back/side issue which the visiting dressing room hope will settle down overnight.
“It obviously wasn’t the ideal morning,” said Hill, who contributed 20 with the bat and 2-25 from 13 overs of seam.
“We know we didn’t bat to our potential with the line-up that we’ve got. But I will say that the attitude we showed and the fight, especially in that evening session, was really good.
“Cliffy going off injured, the four of us toiled really hard and made it as hard for their batters as we could do, and it ended up working quite well towards the end of the day.”
On Yorkshire’s batting performance, Hill said: “They’re a very good bowling line-up, and the pitch did as much as we thought it would. When I was out there, I thought it was a decent wicket to bat on. When they heavy-rollered it, it went a bit dead.
“We were quite persistent with our lines and lengths.
“Coady and Whitey, you know exactly what you’re going to get with them, and Bessy as well being an international spinner.
“It was a nice way to finish.”
Continuing on the batting, Hill said that the team put it to bed pretty quickly: “There’s no point crying over spilt milk,” he continued.
“There’s no point looking back at that and sulking and moaning. We just need to put all our efforts into the next three days. That showed when we bowled.”
On his own performance, which included the wickets of Nick Gubbins and Tom Prest, he said: “I’m very happy. On a wicket like that, your job is pretty simple. It’s not doing a huge amount, there’s not a huge amount of pace in it. You have to hit top of off-stump with the occasional bumper. We all stuck at that really well.”
And looking ahead to day two, the all-rounder added: “Overnight, the pitch might sweat a bit and it might nip around in the first hour.
“We’ve got two of the best bowlers in the country who can do that in Coady and Whitey. We’ll come out tomorrow full of confidence.”
