Picture by Jack Rubio/Hampshire Cricket. Dom Bess was on media duties this evening alongside his head coach Anthony McGrath.
Anthony McGrath heaped praise on his progressive Yorkshire side after they claimed a deserved victory over Hampshire at the Utilita Bowl, their third of the ongoing Rothesay County Championship season.
Victory by 39 runs was confirmed just before tea, with Hampshire – faced with a 278-target – were bowled out for 238.
Dom Bess claimed season’s best figures of 5-103 from 46 overs, bowling unchanged from the Pavilion End all day. He also captained the side once Jonny Bairstow left the field on day two with a thumb injury.
Yorkshire have moved joint fifth in Division One, 19 points clear of second-bottom Leicestershire and 27 behind leaders Nottinghamshire.
This was win number three in nine matches this season.
McGrath said: “I’m just really pleased for the group because we’ve had a tough few weeks in knockout cricket as we all know, and I know the effort these guys are putting in.
“It would have been a travesty if we hadn’t have won that game. We’ve created about 14, 15 chances today.
“Credit to Hampshire, they’ve scrapped really well, but the effort the boys put in. Anyone who’s been here for four days, has seen how much we’ve fought.
“We were getting close towards the end, of course, but I’m just delighted for the group.”
McGrath continued: “Bigger picture, it pulls us away a little bit. But, also with the results this week, it gets us up the table.
“Anything can happen with five games left, so it was important to start this block with a win.
“We’ve been knocked down quite a few times, but the signs are good, as I keep saying.
“I think we’re really learning how to play on different surfaces, but anyone who’s been here, we didn’t panic at all.
“We might have panicked when there was a partnership and it got close, but we stuck to the plan all day. We knew it wasn’t going to be a pitch you could blast them out on. Everyone in the field was invested emotionally.”
There were a host of significant contributors for Yorkshire in this fixture, Bess, George Hill and Adam Lyth chief amongst them.
McGrath said: ”A special mention to Fin Bean, to come on and keep stood up pretty much all day for an innings and a half. The energy he put in kind of led that, and the lads fed off it.”
“We’re talking about not just one or two contributing, it’s everyone.
“I thought a big part of the game actually was the 70-odd runs we put on the last three wickets on day one when we were 80-7 or whatever it was.
“Ben Coad, Ben Cliff, Bessy, George Hill.
“Every week George stands up. We can’t take that for granted, but he’s been magnificent this week.
“Lythy, he looked as dangerous as any of the spinners and has just got a knack for the wickets.
“But I think Dom, he’s had a couple of tough times this season.
“Personally, on days where he puts a lot of pressure on himself to get the job done and get wickets, I’m delighted for him to get five-five, because he’s won us that game today.
“Wheeled away all day. I know he was gutted when we lost in the quarter-finals. So, yeah, he’ll feel good tonight.”
Clearly there was controversy just before lunch when Andrew Neal, on 19, was adjudged not out having edged a Bess delivery into Bean’s boot and up into the hands of Hill at slip. Umpires Jack Shantry and Russell Warren, the latter the standing umpire, ruled it not out.
Replays showed it was out. Had Neal been given, Hampshire would have been 179-7. As it was, Neal survived and advanced Hampshire to 235-7 with 39.
In the end, Bess got him.
McGrath added: “It’s a tough job, isn’t it? I’m going to give you clichés because we’ve won. It might have been different if we hadn’t!
“But, yeah, I think we had four very, very good shouts today. Look, these two are good umpires. They give what they see. Both teams will see it differently.
“But, yeah, I’m just glad Dom got his wickets and we got the win.”
McGrath, meanwhile, says he is hopeful captain Bairstow will be fit to face Leicestershire at Scarborough from Thursday following the left thumb injury suffered here.
Jack White will also be assessed having split the webbing on his left hand during the Nottinghamshire Metro Bank One-Day Cup quarter-final defeat at York last week.
Man-of-the-moment Bess, meanwhile, said: “I could get one wicket or 10, I couldn’t care less as long as we get the 10 poles.
“I just think the importance of that game. The way you look at that Championship now, it’s one of the tightest probably going into the final five weeks, and that win’s absolutely massive for us.
“Home ground advantage and things like that, Hampshire are an absolute nightmare down here. So for us to sort of get over the line, I think it shows a lot of character about everyone.
“At the end, I was just thinking, ‘No-one’s getting the ball out of my hand. If we do go down, I go down sort of fighting with that’.”
And asked whether he saw this as a win to ease the relegation fears or one to boost Yorkshire’s Championship title hopes, Bess added: “I want to see it as a second one.
“We’re not there to survive, we’re there to thrive, we’re there to push it. Where we want to be is with a medal around our necks.
“It’s funny because you’ll see the table, but it’s not far off, and we’ve got to play everyone above. If we play like that, we’re dangerous.
“It’s not about looking down, it’s looking above.”
