Picture by Stu Forster/Getty Images. James Wharton posted his fourth half-century of the season, on day three against Surrey at the Kia Oval.
James Wharton and unbeaten Jonny Bairstow hit contrasting half-centuries during the final two sessions of day three, but they weren’t enough to dig Yorkshire out of trouble against Surrey at the Kia Oval.
County champions Surrey remain firmly in the ascendancy in this Rothesay County Championship fixture having taken a first-innings lead of 257 at lunch thanks to their first-innings 512 all out in reply to 255.
Wharton united with captain Bairstow with the score at 83-3 shortly after tea, the latter leading an entertaining counter-attack during a stand of 84 inside 17 overs. Though Wharton was the first of three quick wickets to fall late in the day as the visitors closed on 185-6 from 64 overs, trailing by 72.
Wharton reached a much more watchful fifty first having come in at number three and finished with 67 off 135 balls. Bairstow, meanwhile, was at his buccaneering best, reaching his second fifty of the match in only 39 balls and ending the day on 64 from 66 balls.
Surrey started the day on 384-7, with George Hill completing an excellent 5-66 from 28 overs. Jordan Clark made his way to 69 for Surrey before he later struck twice with his always at you seamers.
This was Wharton’s fourth fifty of the Championship season and Bairstow’s fifth. The captain made 89 in the first innings in confident fashion, but this was even more aggressive.
Yorkshire’s second innings started immediately after lunch, and openers Fin Bean and Adam Lyth fell inside the opening 15 overs, falling to 31-2.
Bean feathered behind defending aghast New Zealand seamer Smith for nine before Lyth nibbled at a back-of-a-length delivery from Clark and edged to second slip for 16.
Picture by Ben Hoskins/Getty Images. Jonny Bairstow posted his second half-century of the match at the Kia Oval, backing up his first-innings 89.
Wharton and Tattersall then dug in against Surrey’s four seamers, Smith, Clark, Matthew Fisher and Tom Lawes.
They successively navigated a period of short-pitched bowling before tea, and the hosts were hampered somewhat by the loss of part-time spinner Dan Lawrence because of a back injury.
Lawrence sustained the injury whilst batting yesterday.
While he was never going to be a frontline option today, he would have been utilised for a few overs to give the quicks a breather.
Incidentally, when Yorkshire bowled this morning, they took the field without Australian overseas seamer Jordan Buckingham, who picked up a hip issue yesterday and is unlikely to bowl again in the match.
Boundaries were few and far between for Wharton and Tattersall as they slowly but surely chipped away at the deficit, reaching tea at 67-2 from 32 overs.
Unfortunately, Tattersall edged Clark to second slip shortly after tea, falling for 12 – 83-3 in the 39th – to end a 52-run stand. It was an innings full of fortitude which perhaps deserved more than a dozen runs.
Bairstow, however, came in and got onto the front foot immediately, hitting four fours in his first 14 balls to move to 20. All were hit through the off-side, two of them driven through the covers.
Picture by Ben Hoskins/Getty Images. All-rounder Jordan Clark was in the runs and wickets today.
And when Wharton reached his fifty – his fourth of the season – off 103 balls, Yorkshire were 130-3 and trailing by 127.
The half-century stand with Bairstow was also reached shortly afterwards, and you were starting to see a realistic route back into this fixture.
Surrey reverted to the short-ball tactic, but Bairstow was having none of it.
In the 50th over of the innings, which went for 20, he top-edged a pull at Fisher for four over the keeper’s head before connecting more cleanly with successive pulled sixes over long-leg, taking the score to 158-3 and the deficit below 100.
Unfortunately, though, Wharton was bowled by a beauty of an in-swinger from Fisher, leaving the score at 167-4 in the 56th over – the first of three wickets for two runs in 13 balls.
Lawes returned to take two wickets in the 58th, getting Hill caught at first slip and nightwatchman Buckingham lbw with a yorker. He had come out with Bean as a runner.
Bairstow and Matthew Revis then batted through to close. The latter will begin the final day on three.
Earlier, Surrey added another 128 runs for the loss of their final three wickets, two of which went to Jordan Thompson and the other to his fellow all-rounder Hill, who recorded his second haul of five wickets or more in as many matches.
Picture by Ben Hoskins/Getty Images. Yorkshire are battling to avoid defeat at the Kia Oval.
In the first innings of last weekend’s draw against Essex at Chelmsford, Hill claimed 6-51 and nine wickets in the match in all.
Surrey had the better of the morning, aggressively pushing their lead beyond 250 before being bowled out on the stroke of lunch.
Clark’s 69 supplemented the 86 and 85 made by Ben Foakes and Kurtis Patterson yesterday.
He completed a 94-run stand for the eighth wicket with overnight partner Smith, who contributed 42 before being trapped lbw by one angled in from Hill – 445-8 in the 129th over.
In the day’s opening over – a Ben Coad maiden to Clark – Surrey had fallen short of a fourth batting point and Yorkshire a third bowling point.
Clark, having reached his fifty off 92 balls, then lost his off-stump to Thompson, who then wrapped up the innings when former team-mate Fisher was undone by extra bounce and edged to Hill at first slip for 18.
However, that was not before Fisher and unbeaten Lawes with 37 had shared 48 for the last wicket. Lawes hit seven fours in 33 balls and played the innings of the morning – strong on both sides of the wicket and down the ground.
Every Surrey batter reached double figures.
