Will Luxton admitted that batting with Jonny Bairstow was a bit of a ‘pinch me’ moment after Yorkshire’s young batting star scored his maiden first-class fifty at Scarborough today.
Yorkshire have the advantage over Division Two leaders Sussex after two days of the ongoing Vitality County Championship promotion battle.
Sussex, in their second innings, are 26-0 and 111 runs in arrears.
Yorkshire batted for the majority of day two, posting a first-innings 326 all out in reply to 189.
England’s Bairstow made a combative 57, 21-year-old Luxton a more watchful 59.
The pair shared 90 for the fourth wicket through the majority of the afternoon.
“It was nice to be out there and build a bit of confidence, and hopefully I can keep it going in these last five games,” said Luxton, who has enjoyed an excellent few weeks.
He scored a maiden first-team century earlier this month, with 105 not out in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup win over Warwickshire at Rugby School.
He continued: “The ball was 20 to 20-odd overs old when me and Jonny got together, and it wasn’t doing as much.
“It was nice to be out there with him – he’s one of the very best, isn’t he.
“I’ve watched him on TV for so long, so it was brilliant batting with him.
“He’s was very fired up today, and it was good to see him get some runs.”
That fire was stoked when Sussex thought they had him caught behind on four off the bowling of his England team-mate Ollie Robinson. The pair exchanged words.
“If there’s someone you don’t want to fire up, it’s Jonny. He loves that battle,” smiled Luxton, who went on to assess Yorkshire’s day in a wider context.
“This morning, if you’d have offered us 130 in front, we’d have said, ‘Yeah’. But we really wanted to be batting until the end of the day.”
As Bairstow attacked after lunch, driving his first ball for four, Luxton was becalmed. In fact, he resumed after lunch on 27 from 104-3 and didn’t score a run for 50 minutes.
“Batting with Jonny, he’s always going to put the pressure on,” he added.
“They bowled well straight after lunch. Jonny played the way he played, and I just saw it out.”
