Picture by John Mallett/Leicestershire CCC. The pitch being played on at Grace Road this weekend.
Yorkshire endured a disappointing and frustrating opening day with bat and then ball against Leicestershire in their Rothesay County Championship match at the Uptonsteel County Ground, Grace Road.
The White Rose, having elected to bat against the bottom side in Division One, were bowled out for 185 at tea before the Foxes responded strongly with 177-3 from 41 overs to seize control. England all-rounder Rehan Ahmed had an excellent day with two wickets and an unbeaten 62 off 85 balls.
Seam-bowling Greens Ben and Alex shared five wickets for Leicestershire, captain Ben taking the new ball and leading the way for his side with 3-27 from 17 overs on a pitch useful for bowling on and with a strange look to it.
James Wharton top-scored for Yorkshire with a defiant 56 off 109 balls as wickets fell around him. George Hill also contributed 42, but only one more batter made it to 20.
Sitting bottom of the top-flight pile and without a win in seven previous games in 2026, Green’s side are running out of time to save their skins. So they will be absolutely delighted the way they started on a glorious warm and sunny day.
Yorkshire made one change from their draw against Warwickshire at Scarborough last time out, the left-arm spin of Dan Moriarty coming in for his first game of the season in all competitions in place of seamer Ben Cliff.
The White Rose arrived at Grace Road expecting to be faced with a result pitch. Anthony McGrath said as much in his post-match interview after Warwickshire on Monday.
Picture by John Mallett/Leicestershire CCC. James Wharton sweeps at the spin of Ajaz Patel today en-route to his 56.
What they perhaps didn’t expect was the pitch to look like it did, with both ends shaved to suit spin and the middle emerald green to try and aid seam.
And there was obvious assistance for the seamers today, especially before lunch. Spin is expected to play an increasing role as the contest develops and the pitch – under the glare of the gorgeous East Midlands sunshine – gets drier and drier.
Yorkshire lost five wickets before lunch, latterly captain Jonny Bairstow in the final over of the morning session.
Will Luxton was first to go, lbw to the Foxes’ captain Ben Green.
While there was a green look to the middle of the pitch, there was also a green look to the scorecard as highly-rated young seamer Alex Green also impressed.
After Josh Davey had Sam Whiteman caught and bowled by his bootlaces – 31-2 in the seventh over – Ben Green had Adam Lyth caught behind.
Matthew Revis was next to go caught behind off Alex Green for his maiden first-class wicket in the 19-year-old’s third career appearance.
Picture by John Mallett/Leicestershire CCC. Captains Ben Green and Jonny Bairstow at the toss.
Bairstow, with 17, shared 43 for the fifth wicket with Wharton from 46-4. But he was bowled by a beauty from the seam of on-loan Kent all-rounder Joey Evison in the 28th over, the last before lunch.
Wharton, Hill and Hassan Ali – the latter with 23 – were the only three Yorkshire batters to pass 20.
Wharton and Hill united immediately after lunch and looked pretty settled at the crease. Both played confidently in sharing 42.
Wharton reached his fifty in 106 balls, though unfortunately was caught behind not long afterwards as he played back to Alex Green, leaving the score at 131-6.
Hill continued on and looked set to follow suit in reaching a half-century. But that wasn’t to be.
Dom Bess hit his first two balls for four against Green, one beautifully driven down the ground and making a claim for the shot of the day,
But, after he was bowled by Ben Green – off a feather of an inside-edge, Hill was caught behind aiming a late cut at New Zealand left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel as the score slipped to 183-8 in the 54th over.
Picture by John Mallett/Leicestershire CCC. Yorkshire’s players congratulate Hassan Ali after dismissing opener Sheridon Gumbs this evening.
Patel played two matches for Yorkshire at the end of 2019 which preceded the Coronavirus outbreak at the start of the following summer.
Frustratingly, Yorkshire lost their last three wickets in six balls, with Rehan’s leg-spin accounting for the last two off successive deliveries at the start of the 55th. He had Hassan lbw sweeping and Jack White lbw pushing forwards.
An early tea was taken as a result, and Leicestershire then achieved something the White Rose hadn’t managed to.
After Hassan trapped left-handed opener Sheridon Gumbs lbw shouldering arms to leave the score at 17-1 in the seventh over, Patel and England all-rounder Rehan shared the contest’s first half-century partnership.
When Patel reached his fifty off 49 balls with an eye-catching on-drive against Revis, Leicestershire were 76-1. Rehan then immediately went after Moriarty, hitting two fours and a straight six in the left-armer’s first over as the score moved to 98-1 after 20.
Patel and Rehan shared 96 for the second wicket, a partnership broken by a clever bit of bowling from Moriarty, who sent one down leg as Patel shimmied down the pitch against it. That left the score at 113-2 in the 24th over.
There was further success for Moriarty when he bowled Lewis Hill off his pad for 10 – 125-3. Not long before that Rehan could have fallen the same way but the bails didn’t come off. Attacked early, Moriarty had come back nicely.
Picture by John Mallett/Leicestershire CCC. Dan Moriarty is making his first first-team appearance of 2026 and struck twice after tea.
Instead, he survived to reached a 63-ball fifty and formed a dangerous looking partnership with New Zealand overseas left-hander Nick Kelly, who reached close unbeaten on 25.
The pair shared an unbroken 52 for the fourth wicket. And Yorkshire will need to break it early tomorrow morning.
