James Wharton says Yorkshire’s successful end to the day with the ball eased their earlier frustrations with the bat as he reflected on day one against Essex at Chelmsford.
Yorkshire slipped from 108-1 to 216 all out, with the county’s number three top-scoring with 63 not out. Opener Adam Lyth also made 58 after Jonny Bairstow had elected to bat first.
The visitors failed to make the most of a good start, but they went some way to rectifying that by limiting Essex to 27-3 at close in reply.
“When we won the toss and chose to bat, I didn’t think we’d be bowling and have them three down by the end of the day,” said Huddersfield’s Wharton.
“A bit of an interesting one really, but it’s looking like it’s going to be a good game.”
The pitch was a tricky one to read. At the start of the day, it looked slow and placid. By the end, with 13 wickets having fallen, that view was maybe different.
Wharton had his say: “Like any pitch, if you put it in the right area, something can happen,” he continued. “There’s not a huge amount of nibble or anything like that – maybe a bit more tonight with a new pill. And our boys got it exceptionally right.
“With a slightly older ball, I think you’ve got to be quite attritional and stick to your lines because there’s not a great deal there.
“It’s maybe getting a little bit worse (the pitch). Just looking at the way our lads have bowled, and I think Hilly’s ball to Porter stayed a little bit low. It also looks like it’s nipping about a little bit more.
“It was obviously frustrating (with the bat), but we’ve bounced back exactly how we do.
“To have them three down overnight with a young lad in and their skipper, I think we’re very happy with that.
“We’re disappointed with the batting effort. We would have liked more runs, but I think to get to where we are, I think it’s a decent effort.”
And on his own innings, he added: “It was quite a boring watch I’d imagine. It was just very attritional.
“Their bowlers don’t really miss a great deal. So you just sort of had to bide your time and take what you could get really because the pitch is quite slow and the fields they set were very good.”
