Picture by John Heald. Fin Bean takes the catch at third slip to help Ben Coad remove Eddie Byrom.
Yorkshire – led by Jack White and some superb catching behind the wicket – piled the early pressure on newly-promoted Glamorgan during a shortened day one of the new summer at Cardiff today.
Light rain prevented a start until 4.15pm at Sophia Gardens, with 36 overs to be bowled.
After Jonny Bairstow inserted the newly-promoted hosts under an overcast sky, new-ball partners Ben Coad and White got to work to seize the early initiative.
But, as Glamorgan slipped to 28-4 in 14 overs, huge credit should also go to Fin Bean, the captain himself and Dom Bess as they all took fine catches. The Bean and Bairstow efforts were both one-handed.
The Welsh side, second in Division Two last year, later closed on 99-4 thanks to an unbroken 71 between Colin Ingram and Ben Kellaway, who posted 41 and 35 respectively. White finished with 3-26 from 10 overs and Coad 1-11 from seven.
Unfortunately, late in the day, Bairstow left the field nursing a right thumb injury, and he was replaced behind the stumps by Bean for the last five-and-a-half overs.
Picture by John Heald. Jack White celebrates one of his three wickets today.
Yorkshire handed debuts to Logan van Beek and Sam Whiteman. From the 14-man squad selected by Anthony McGrath, Ben Cliff, Will Luxton and Dan Moriarty were the ones to miss out.
The heavy overnight rain turned much lighter and was on and off throughout the day. Umpires Nigel Llong and Russell Warren inspected regularly but only made headway after tea.
Much of the talk during the second half of the winter has centred around England looking to the future following their nightmare Ashes campaign Down Under.
Asa Tribe’s name has regularly cropped up as a possible following impressive performances for the Lions and in the SAT20 competition in South Africa, where Bairstow was in opposition. However, things didn’t work out for the emerging Glamorgan opener this evening, thankfully, with him falling caught behind to White.
The first wicket had gone to Coad, who actually conceded a boundary to Eddie Byrom through mid-wicket with the very first ball of the match.
Revenge came when left-handed Byrom, defending, edged one which was angled back in to Bean, who took a low one-handed catch going to his left. That left the score at 20-1 in the ninth over.
Picture by John Heald. Jonny Bairstow is congratulated after helping Jack White dismiss Sean Dickson.
Further success came quickly.
In the next over, Tribe, for 11, was caught behind feeling for one just outside off-stump from White with the score still on 20.
In the 12th, Sean Dickson edged a drive at the same bowler, with Bairstow taking a one-handed catch going low to his right in front of first slip – 21-3.
And at the end of the 14th over, White had three-for as new Glamorgan captain Kiran Carlson tried to whip a delivery over Bess, stationed at a wide leg-slip. Thankfully, from a Yorkshire point of view, he couldn’t. And the White Rose were flying with the score at 28-4.
Glamorgan’s mood was then improved somewhat as Ingram and Kellaway steadied.
Ingram actually uppercut a short ball from van Beek for six over cover. Both men drove nicely.
Picture by John Heald. Dom Bess takes the congratulations after helping Jack White remove Glamorgan skipper Kiran Carlson.
They enjoyed success during the best part of a blustery day weather-wise, with the sun making an appearance.
However, that was when Bairstow suffered his thumb injury having been struck by an under-edged pull from Ingram against van Beek.
He left the field for assessment. If needed, he can be subbed out of the game thanks to a new rule brought in by the ECB for this season’s Championship.
