Picture by Getty Images/Surrey Cricket. James Wharton and Matthew Revis stride to the middle after tea today.
Yorkshire endured a challenging, shortened opening day with the bat against Surrey at The Kia Oval, including losing their first three wickets for one run.
This 11th-round Rothesay County Championship match is a crucial one. Win it, and Yorkshire can really start to look up. Lose it, and they’ll be looking over their shoulders at the bottom two.
The White Rose did recover from 1-3 to 92-3 in bowler-friendly conditions thanks to fourth-wicket pair James Wharton and Matthew Revis, who led the way with hard-working scores of 45 and 40 respectively.
They ended a day which was cut short by 36 overs because of rain through until lunch-time, and later bad light from 5.45pm, on 133-7 from 59.5 overs.
Yorkshire and Surrey came into this fixture fourth and third-bottom respectively in Division One, separated by 12 points. Surrey were only three points above the relegation places.
Yorkshire, having been inserted, made a nightmare start when play got underway at 1.10pm. They had hoped to start half an hour late at 11am, although the rain returned immediately after Rory Burns had won the toss. Incidentally, have you seen his coin toss technique? It’s extravagant to say the least.
There was assistance both through the air and off the pitch for Surrey’s bowlers.
Picture by Getty Images/Surrey Cricket. Captains Rory Burns and Jonny Bairstow after the toss this morning.
The wickets of Adam Lyth and Sam Whiteman indicated the former and that of Will Luxton the latter as Yorkshire slipped to 1-3 in the first 15 balls.
Lyth was trapped lbw as he tried to leave alone a Fisher in-swinger, the same bowler getting Whiteman lbw pushing forwards two balls later and towards the end of the second over. Luxton was caught behind feeling for one which nipped away from Dan Worrall in the next over.
Wharton and Revis, though, played very nicely on a green-tinged pitch.
Understandably, there were plenty of plays and misses, but they rode the storm against an attack including overseas debutant seamer Auqib Nabi, one of three Indians playing in this game and two of them debutants.
Spin bowler Rahul Chahar is playing for Surrey, as he has done in recent weeks and towards the back end of last season, while fellow twirler Kuldeep Yadav is making his red-ball bow for the White Rose having featured in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup through July and August.
Kuldeep came into the side for seamer Ben Cliff as the only change from last week’s rainy draw with Leicestershire at Scarborough.
While Revis played a couple of nice back foot punches through the covers, a number of his and Wharton’s boundaries were worked and deflected under The Oval floodlights. They also left the ball well.
Picture by Getty Images/Surrey Cricket. James Wharton top-scored for Yorkshire with 45 on day one at The Kia Oval.
Just before tea, Wharton did confidently drive Chahar’s leg-spin through the covers for four.
Revis did the bulk of the early scoring before Wharton caught him up. The former had 40 at tea, the latter 39 as the score moved to 86-3 from 34 overs.
Revis fell inside the opening half hour of the evening when he chipped the seam of Tom Lawes to mid-wicket, leaving the score at 92-4 in the 40th over.
That soon became 101-6 after 45, with two catches for Ollie Pope at second slip. Worrall had Jonny Bairstow for three before Lawes got Wharton in the next over.
Yorkshire had lost three wickets for nine runs and were back under pressure again.
That theory was further strengthened when George Hill edged Worrall behind pushing forwards with the score on 113.
Surrey were excellent with the ball today, to be fair, despite conditions being in their favour. They were potent yet miserly.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Dan Worrall impressed for Surrey today with three wickets.
None of their bowlers went at more than three runs per over, while Worrall and Lawes both went at under twos.
Dom Bess and Kuldeep Yadav ensured there was no further damage through until close, with 21 and six respectively. Umpires David Millns and Rob White took the players off for the light, with Worrall ending the day with figures of 3-24 from 17 overs.
