Over the coming weeks, we are running a series of articles on yorkshireccc.com with Jonny Tattersall, who has been reflecting on the key moments in Yorkshire’s promotion-winning campaign in the Vitality County Championship.
Entitled Tatts’ Magic moments, he continues with Shan Masood’s 140 and the first-innings fightback from 90-5 in the mid-April draw against Gloucestershire at Bristol.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Jonny Tattersall has been picking out some magic moments from Yorkshire’s promotion campaign.
Yorkshire’s much-heralded batting line-up were in early trouble on day one of their second round clash at the Seat Unique Stadium. Having been inserted by Gloucestershire, Joe Root and Harry Brook were amongst the morning departures as the score slipped to 90-5 at lunch. Step forward captain Masood and the supporting cast as the visitors turned things around to chase victory.
No doubt about it, this was a key moment in Yorkshire’s campaign. An early defeat and things could have snowballed.
But skipper Masood, with help from wicketkeeper-batter Tattersall and seamer Matt Milnes, stemmed the tide expertly.
At close, Gloucestershire were 28-2 in reply to 326 all out and long gone were the lunchtime concerns.
Masood led the way with a fluent 140 off 184 balls, and he shared 100 for the sixth wicket with Tattersall and 95 for the seventh with Milnes, both men chipping in with fifties.
Tattersall made 58 and Milnes 51.
Picture by Dan Mullan/Getty Images. Shan Masood en-route to his April century against Gloucestershire at Bristol.
“Those two partnerships really got us into a position where, towards the end of the game, we had a chance of winning it,” recalled Tattersall.
“If Shan had not made that hundred, and those partnerships hadn’t have come, we could have been struggling in that game and been on the back foot.
“But we ended up getting to a decent total on a pitch which was doing a bit early on.
“We had a good batting line-up, and that was a strength we had all season. With the amount of batting points we got, it showed that we bat all the way down.
“If we got into trouble, there was generally always someone there, like Milnesy in that game, to bail us out.”
Tattersall continued: “Myself and Shan, we put on a really good partnership and scored a decent rate, which helped apply the pressure back onto them.
Picture by Dan Mullan/Getty Images. Matt Milnes pulls Ajeet Singh Dale for six during his day one half-century at Bristol.
“The bowlers then came out and did a decent job to get us a lead, and we were able to get ourselves into a winning position.”
In reply, Gloucestershire were bowled out for 263 as new ball seamers Ben Coad and Matthew Fisher, bowling with the Kookaburra ball, claimed three wickets apiece.
In the second innings, Adam Lyth impressed with 113 to underpin a 434-6 declared total, including fifties from Fin Bean, Root, Brook and George Hill. That set up an unlikely Gloucestershire victory target of 498 just after tea on day three.
Coad claimed another three wickets, but Gloucestershire resisted and finished on 405-6 thanks to centuries for Ollie Price and James Bracey, who made 147 and 102 respectively.
“Unfortunately, I thought that was an opportunity we missed out on early in the season,” said Tattersall. “But it just wasn’t to be on that final day.
“It was really windy and cold that day.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Jonny Tattersall scored a crucial half-century on day one against Gloucestershire after Yorkshire had slipped into early trouble.
“I remember Moz (Dan Moriarty) bowling a fair few overs in that second innings. He didn’t manage to pick up many wickets (1-149 from 43 overs), but he bowled well. And Rooty bowled a lot too.
“There was a lot of drift, and we were setting attacking fields.
“They scored quite a lot of runs in that second innings, but we had the luxury of setting aggressive fields for pretty much the whole day.”
That 140 was Masood’s first of two Championship centuries during a disruptive 2024 which saw him available for only eight matches due to injury and international commitments with Pakistan. He contributed 520 runs at 47.27.
“I think Shan’s been pretty sensational with the bat, not just this year but last year as well,” added Tattersall.
“He scored a lot of runs, and you could just tell the class of batter that he is. He’s so good off his legs, and he applies a lot of pressure with his running between the wickets.
Picture by YCCC. Shan Masood speaks to the media at Bristol after his day one 140.
“We’d joke that he likes a big drive, and we were always a bit worried when he first went in that he’d play a big drive and nick off. But if he got through those first 30 or 40 balls, he just looked like he would go on and make a big score.
“At Gloucestershire, that was exactly what he did and was brilliant.
“In the 50-over comp, he played some good knocks as well.”
