Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Mayank Agarwal hoists one of four sixes en-route to a brilliant century.
Mayank Agarwal scored his first century in county colours – a magnificent 175 off 195 balls – and Adam Lyth celebrated his 38th birthday with an important 69 as the pair helped bat Yorkshire towards Division One safety in the Rothesay County Championship.
Day two against Durham at Headingley was a key one for the White Rose.
Durham started at 322-7 in their first innings but were bowled out for 346, new-ball seamer Jack White claiming an excellent season’s best 5-69 from 20.2 overs.
White claimed all three wickets to fall as the innings was wrapped up inside eight overs. Durham’s counter-attacking all-rounder Ben Raine moved from 87 not out overnight to 101 (off 105 balls).
Against a side second-bottom in the table – and whom they held a six-point lead over before a ball was bowled this week, effectively seven given their advantage on the most wins tiebreaker – Yorkshire then needed to bat well in the knowledge that a draw will be enough this week for safety.
And that’s what Agarwal and company did. Starting their innings during the day’s opening hour, Yorkshire reached close at on 314-5 from 86 overs, a deficit of 32.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Mayank Agarwal celebrates his century against Durham this afternoon.
Right-handed Agarwal and Lyth shared 127 for the second wicket either side of lunch, advancing from 9-1.
Yorkshire had much the better of an action-packed morning which saw White bowl Matthew Potts and Daniel Hogg with beauties in his second over of the day and Raine reach only his second first-class career hundred.
White claimed the last three Durham wickets, including Raine caught at third-man following a swished top-edge.
Raine advanced to reach his century off 101 balls.
His eighth-wicket partnership of 87 with Potts was ended when the latter was bowled for 31 through the gate by White and lost his middle-stump in the process.
When Hogg lost his off-stump moments later, Durham had lost two wickets in the 100th over to fall to 332-9.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Adam Lyth en-route to a birthday fifty.
Raine shielded number 11 Shafiqullah Ghafari from the strike for a while and whipped Matt Milnes for six – the left-hander’s fifth – before falling to White to wrap up the innings.
Yorkshire lost Fin Bean early in their reply, which started with Raine and Potts bowling three successive maidens.
Incidentally, Potts is the only member of England’s winter Ashes squad to be playing in this final round of fixtures.
But Lyth and Agarwal expertly repelled any threat in the Headingley sunshine.
Either side of lunch, the second-wicket pair grew in confidence in good batting conditions.
Agarwal took a blow to the left arm from a Raine delivery.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Mayank Agarwal receives attention from physio Alissa Dibley for a left-arm injury early in his innings today.
Lyth was strong through the off-side off front foot and back.
Agarwal’s innings was initially one of more touch.
But, having said that, he did reach his fifty by thumping Ghafari’s leg-spin down the ground for six and continued to take on the opposition’s overseas man through the heart of the afternoon.
Lyth’s fifty came first of 102 balls – the ninth time he has reached such a milestone in a near 1,200-run season. Agarwal’s followed off 84, his first in his third match for the county.
By the time the latter got there, things were looking very bright for the White Rose at 113-1 in the 35th over.
Lyth fell to Ghafari, caught at slip by Potts via a deflection off wicketkeeper Ollie Robinson – 136-2 in the 41st. But it was only brief respite for the Afghanistani.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Jack White completed his first five-wicket haul in a Yorkshire shirt this morning.
Agarwal hit him for two more sixes down the ground, both in the 47th over as he approached 90 and the score moved to 163-2.
Having reached his fifty with a six, he did the same to get to a 122-ball century just before tea, pulling a gift of a long-hop from Ghafari over mid-wicket.
Agarwal, aged 34, was 116 out of 198-2 for tea. He lost James Wharton and Jonny Bairstow to Raine shortly afterwards, one bowled and the other caught behind, as the score slipped to 203-4 in the 58th over.
Agarwal, the 2025 IPL winner with Royal Challengers Bangalore, reached his 150 off 176 balls before pulling Potts for a fifth six over long-leg, by which stage Yorkshire were 254-4.
But he fell trying to hit Ghafari over long-on but miscued a low catch to Graham Clark at 281-5 in the 75th.
Thankfully, there was no further damage as Matthew Revis and George Hill – two contenders for the club’s player-of-the-year award, to be handed out in the Howard Suite this evening – batted through the remainder of the day for 28 and 23 respectively.
