The master and the apprentice were at it again – Adam Lyth and Fin Bean sharing a century partnership to help Yorkshire make a very healthy start to their LV= Insurance County Championship clash with in-form Durham at Scarborough.
The pair shared 113 for the first wicket out of a score of 142-2 from 38 overs, Yorkshire impressing having been invited to bat first by the Division Two leaders.
Lyth top-scored with 75 not out and Bean supported him with 46.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Adam Lyth and Fin Bean on day one at Scarborough.
They have now shared partnerships of 177, 94 and 113 in their last three innings together – against Worcestershire, Sussex and here. Both have scored hundreds in that time, with Lyth looking for a second when play resumes tomorrow.
In many ways, it’s ironic that they have found top form now given that Alex Lees, Lyth’s popular former Championship-winning opening partner is playing in this fixture for Durham.
Assistant coach Ali Maiden said: “Ultimately, they’re a great partnership. They get on really well and have good fun in each other’s company, and they like batting together. It’s showing.
“Lythy is an experienced campaigner and has been around for years.
“He’s playing as well as I’ve seen him since I’ve been at the club. His cover drive is one of his standout shots, and it’s coming out beautifully at the minute.
“Lythy calls him (Bean) his apprentice, and Beany is working things out really quickly.
“He got a good hundred against Leicestershire at the start of the season.
There were some areas of his game from the previous year that he had to sort out.
“The opposition then always find a new way of getting you out. So there have been some challenges. But one thing he does is work things out very quickly. He combats the opposition really well and is moving forwards fast.
“I would say his biggest asset at the minute is how quickly he learns.
“To begin with, he was challenged lbw. But he sorted his guard out, which has taken lbw out of the game. I know he got out lbw today, but he just missed a straight one.
“They set a leg-side trap for him today, and he was good enough to not fall over and chip the ball in the air.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Ali Maiden chats to Jonny Tattersall.
“A few people went short at him probably before the T20 block, and Ottis challenged him to work on his pull shot. Now he’s bringing it out really well.
“They played excellently today.
“The thing they’re doing really well is leaving the ball – both of them. We chat about it. You can often leave a lot of balls at Scarborough because of the bounce.
“They both put the bad ball away as well.”
Yorkshire were inserted and made the most of Durham finding their time to get into rhythm. The visitors went wicketless in the morning session before Matthew Potts trapped both Bean and George Hill lbw in the nine overs of play possible from 5.30pm onwards following rain and even some hail.
It was, in many ways, unfortunate that Hill fell when he did, with the light closing in. There were only seven more balls bowled after his dismissal.
“It’s cricket, isn’t it,” said Maiden. “We sit off all afternoon after a really good start and then have a horrible little period where you’ve gone from being in the ascendency to everything being in the opposition’s favour. All you can do is try and battle through that period. They got the ball in the area more often.”
He added: “We started brilliantly – we had a really good start to the day. But it’s frustrating that the rain put a stop to our progression and changed the momentum a bit. That’s been the story of the last few weeks, really.
“There were still lots of good things from the day.
“They were keen to bowl, as we were. But if you don’t get the ball in the right place often enough, batters score runs. We’ve seen that lots of times here.
“They went searching for wickets a bit because they’d won the toss and everyone expected them to get wickets, and we capitalised. It was really good.”
