Jonny Tattersall is hoping Yorkshire can bounce back from a disappointing third day at Emirates Old Trafford and secure a valuable Roses draw tomorrow.
“It wasn’t an ideal day” was captain Tattersall’s summary of the day.
Yorkshire fell from 130-4 overnight in their first innings to 255 all out as they replied to 276 before Lancashire boosted their lead to 224 with 203-3 in only 33 overs at close.
Tattersall was on media duties, speaking at the end of a day which saw him take his maiden first-class wicket with some part-time leg-spin.
He struck with only his fifth ball in first-team cricket, removing Keaton Jennings for 68 moments before bad light ended play 16 overs early.
“It wasn’t an ideal day,” he said. “That’s the way it goes sometimes. But there’s still a bit of cricket to go in this game, a bit of rain around, and hopefully we can get something out of it.
“We were disappointed to lose a couple of quick wickets this morning, and we didn’t get as many as we’d have hoped. But we did well to get a couple of batting points.
“We know we can be a lot better than what we showed there with the bat. There were a few soft dismissals. Hopefully we can put that right in the next innings.”
Luke Wells was superb for Lancashire as they flew out of the blocks in their second innings during the afternoon, the opener crashing 124 off only 82 balls.
He shared 186 for the first wicket with Jennings.
“Full credit to Lancashire, they played fantastically well,” continued Tattersall.
“We wanted to be attacking to try and get some early wickets to put them under pressure, but they came out really hard.
“Wells played some unbelievably good shots back over the bowler’s head for six. On that wicket, it wasn’t easy. You have to give a lot of credit to the batters.”
Tattersall then ended the day by handing over the gloves to Tom Kohler-Cadmore and bowling himself, getting Jennings caught at short third-man on the reverse sweep.
He ended the left-hander’s bid for a fifth hundred in as many Roses innings.
“He obviously can’t play leg-spin, can he!” Tattersall joked. “No, seriously, he’s an unbelievable player who has played very well against us this year.
“It was a bit of a role of dice, and our over-rate was down. It was more to see if we could sneak a couple in, and they came out alright.”
Tattersall struck with what he said was the top spinner and may even bowl again at the start of play tomorrow, with Yorkshire still behind the over-rate.
But will him bowling become a more regular occurence?
“I’m not sure about that, but it’s an option if we need it,” he said.
“I’m fully backing our lads with the ball to do the job, but it’s hard work on that innings.
“I got a few to spin, but there’s still not a huge amount of turn there.
“The lads have put in a huge amount of effort all season, and who would be a fast bowler on some of the pitches we’ve played on this season. You have to give them credit for keep coming back and trying.”
Tattersall also paid tribute to the efforts of Kohler-Cadmore, who top-scored with 51 with the bat for Yorkshire and 10th-wicket pair Ben Coad and Steve Patterson after they batted together for almost 22 valuable overs.
“I thought Tom played really well,” he added. “He showed some great intent and played lovely for his fifty.
“Hopefully we can repeat some more of the good things we did tomorrow and get out of with a draw and move a bit further away from that bottom two.
“They (Coad and Patterson) played well. It was getting close to a 50 partnership, which for the last wicket is crucial.
“Those lower order runs is something we’ve done really well over the years. Perhaps not as much this, but we’ve scored a lot of top order runs, which is fantastic.
“But, in the context of the game, their partnership could turn out to be very handy.”
