Yorkshire were denied an LV= Insurance County Championship victory by stiff Glamorgan resistance led by final day centuries for Eddie Byrom and Sam Northeast at Cardiff.
A game which Yorkshire had driven petered out into a draw on a lifeless Sophia Gardens surface.
The county were chasing back-to-back Championship victories for the first time since midway through the 2021 season after beating Derbyshire at Scarborough last week.
Glamorgan started the day on 120-2 in their second innings, a deficit of 107. They ended the day on 401-5 declared, leading by 174 when the players shook hands at 4.20pm.
Twenty-year-old seamer Ben Cliff claimed his maiden first-class wicket with only his second ball of the day after lunch. James Wharton did likewise at the end of the day with his part-time off-spin. Opener Byrom made 101 for Glamorgan and Northeast an unbeaten 166 off 296 balls.
Picture by John Heald. Ben Cliff celebrates his maiden first-class wicket.
Captain Shan Masood with 192 and Matthew Revis with 5-50 in the first innings were Yorkshire’s standout performers from their 11th of 14 matches in Division Two.
A 13-point haul means Yorkshire remain bottom of the table. Following the mid-season 48-point deduction, one of Yorkshire’s key aims for the remainder of the summer was to avoid finishing bottom of the table. That is now very realistic with two games remaining. They are within striking distance of Gloucestershire and Derbyshire immediately above them.
Yorkshire’s eighth draw of the season matches the haul they accrued in 2016 when they finished third in Division One, narrowly missing out on a third successive Championship title.
Not since then have they had as many four-day draws in a summer.
Opener Byrom started the day on 52 and former Yorkshire loanee Northeast on 45. They advanced their partnership from 90 overnight to 178, batting comfortably in favourable conditions.
Masood juggled his bowlers around in the morning, including using Jonny Tattersall’s leg-spin for four overs. Fin Bean took over wicketkeeping duties during that passage of play.
Picture by John Heald. Jonny Tattersall bowling today.
Bess, Jordan Thompson, Matthew Revis, George Hill and Adam Lyth were all used. But seam bowling Bens Cliff and Coad weren’t.
Keeping the latter out of the attack was seemingly done to save him for the second new ball, which was taken shortly after lunch with Glamorgan at 254-3 leading by 27 with 60 overs remaining in the day.
Byrom reached his century off 193 balls before lunch and Northeast afterwards off 198.
Having been as watchful as he was en-route to three figures, it was a surprise to see Byrom throw his wicket away as he was bowled reverse-sweeping at Bess – 208-3 in the 66th over.
Unfortunately, however, one wicket didn’t lead to the two, three or four quick ones Yorkshire required to break the game back open as they had earlier done by making the hosts follow-on in reply to their first-innings 500 all out.
Northeast reached his century just before the second new ball was taken by Coad and Thompson.
And just afterwards, Glamorgan captain Kiran Carlson reached 24 and 1,000 Championship runs for the summer.
Carlson is one of only four batters in Division Two to have achieved that feat this summer; Alex Lees, Leus du Plooy and Rishi Patel are the others on the list.
It’s hoped that over the next fortnight, Yorkshire openers Fin Bean and Adam Lyth will join them. Both are inside 150 runs from that milestone.
The new ball didn’t work for Yorkshire, and it was quickly evident that this game was going to drift towards a conclusion and a handshake between the two teams at 4.20pm.
That is exactly what transpired, but not before Carlson has gone on to post 52 and be caught behind down leg off Cliff’s opening over of the day after lunch.
Carlson fell the ball after reaching his fifty off 73 balls.
Picture by John Heald. Ben Cliff celebrates dismissing Kiran Carlson.
At that stage, Glamorgan were 305-4 with a lead of 78 and a minimum of 51.4 overs remaining in the match.
However, Northeast found another ally in former Yorkshire second-teamer Billy Root, Joe’s younger brother.
Glamorgan reached 354-4 at tea, leading by 127 with a minimum of 36 overs remaining.
Northeast and Root went on to share 91 for the fifth wicket.
Northeast reached his 150 off 280 balls before Wharton was brought into the attack with the game drifting. He bowled Root for 45 with a beauty – 396-5. It wasn’t quite the last act of the match, but not far off it. Wharton bowled two of 143 overs of spin across the entire match.
