Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com – 27/08/2026 – Cricket – Rothesay County Championship – Yorkshire County Cricket Club v Leicestershire County Cricket Club – North Marine Road, Scarborough, England – Yorkshire’s James Wharton hits out against Leicestershire.
James Wharton’s unbeaten 70 was the feature contribution of a seesaw, weather-shortened opening day of the Rothesay County Championship match between Yorkshire and Leicestershire at Scarborough.
Yorkshire were immediately put onto the back foot at 6-2 in the first 19 balls of a contest which saw them inserted in overcast, bowler-friendly conditions.
Leicestershire were given an early leg-up by their new-ball seamer Josh Davey, who removed openers Adam Lyth and Will Luxton caught behind and bowled respectively. He finished with an excellent 2-22 from 10 overs.
Either side of lunch, the Foxes were pegged back by Wharton and Sam Whiteman, who blunted the threat with a 115 stand for the third-wicket.
But just as Yorkshire were getting themselves on an even keel, Leicestershire hit back to reduce them to 144-5 inside 53 overs before bad light intervened almost immediately.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Sam Whiteman contributed an important 49.
Initially it brought an early tea before rain followed and forced the abandonment of the day at 4.45pm.
Davey squared left-handed Lyth up before he uprooted Luxton’s middle-stump with one angled in to the right-hander.
Not surprisingly, Wharton, who hit six fours in 129 balls, and Whiteman were circumspect, though they did play some eye-catching shots.
Both pushed boundaries down the ground, for example, as Yorkshire reached lunch at 84-2. Wharton had 44 of them.
Wharton eased the first ball of the afternoon for four wide of mid-on against the returning Davey and reached his fifty very soon afterwards, off 79 balls.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Former Yorkshire wicketkeeper-batter Jonny Tattersall is donning the gloves for Leicestershire in this fixture. He claimed four catches today.
He and Whiteman followed that by recording their century stand
Whiteman then picked up a seven made up of a three to third off Tom Scriven and then four overthrows as wicketkeeper Jonny Tattersall tried to run Whiteman out at the non-striker’s end.
But Leicestershire hit back strongly, with Yorkshire falling from 121-2 to 144-5.
Scriven and Tattersall united to remove a driving Whiteman before Matthew Revis was caught behind down leg off Alex Green.
Left-arm quick Josh Hull then had a driving Jonny Bairstow caught behind following extra bounce.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Jonny Bairstow and Ian Holland at the toss this morning.
Frustratingly for Bairstow and Yorkshire, only one more ball was bowled before bad light intervened just before 3.30pm. By the time umpires Graham Lloyd and Ian Blackwell abandoned the day, it was raining quite heavily.
Wharton played very nicely en-route to his third fifty of the red-ball season, reached off 79 balls.
Overall, Yorkshire will be pleased to have recovered from 6-2, though frustrated at falling from 121-2 and losing three quick wickets.
In all, 43.1 overs were not bowled today. We can make up 16 of those over the next two days, eight tomorrow and eight more on Saturday, assuming of course that we don’t get any more weather interruptions.
