Yorkshire Vs. Lancashire Friendly Day 2.

Bairstow century prevents Lancashire dominance.

After a reformed effort with the bat and an overnight declaration, Lancashire’s friendly against there closest rivals had really taken flight, thanks to Kyle Hogg and Wayne White’s unbeaten stand of 136 for the eighth wicket partnership. The visitors managed 269-7 at Headingley and were hoping to improve on their bowling performance from the match versus Worcestershire at Old Trafford.  Yorkshire's strong bowling attack had failed to remove the tail-end batsmen, but the second day promised to be very entertaining with even more England players on show, despite the friendly status given to the match.

Play started on time but the teams managed just 4 overs before bad light intervened – The issue turned out to be the sightscreen, which needed adjusting.

When Adam Lyth and Joe Root resumed play they experienced a tough start to Yorkshire’s response as Kyle Hogg troubled the Tykes openers. After Root survived an LBW shout he appeared to be unsettled and was eventually undone by Hogg, edging behind to Gareth Cross for 11. Lyth followed his partner for 14, trapped LBW by Hogg, as Yorkshire staggered to 30-2.

Oliver Newby replaced Hogg and enjoyed early success, trapping captain Andrew Gale LBW for 4 and then Phil Jacques in the same style. Now 51-4, the home side still trailed by 218 runs and were losing wickets at regular intervals. The introduction of Adnan Ghaus, a 22 year-old fast bowler from the Lancashire second XI, brought a fresh air to the attack, but he failed to make any impact on his debut.

Gary Ballance and Jonathan Bairstow achieved a fifty partnership for the fifth-wicket after lunch, but Lancashire eventually found the breakthrough when Ballance was run out for 12, with Yorkshire now 106-5.

Yesterday was certainly a day of two halves, with the second phase putting a complete spin on what had preceded. After the loss of several wickets Lancashire finally found salvation and formed a century partnership and this action was to be repeated once more in the match.

Bairstow had shown early signs of quality, which was hardly surprising after his inclusion in the England test squad against New Zealand and, accompanied by Adil Rashid, Yorkshire’s innings finally started to build stability. Bairstow reached his fifty before the teatime interval, by which point Yorkshire were  209-5. The partnership, which had already passed 100, continued to advance, with Rashid reaching his own half-century before the break.

Bairstow was already closing in on his century, resuming the evening session on 86 and he wasted no time in adding to his total, advancing to 100 shortly after the break. Finding a way to break the sixth-wicket partnership had become virtually impossible and so Lancashire were relieved when Bairstow retired on 136, with Yorkshire now ahead of their opponents score.

After the ending of this 150-run partnership Rashid reached his century from 115 balls retiring on 103, with Yorkshire’s score at 309-7.

Tim Bresnan and Azeem Rafiq then rubbed further salt in to the wounds of their roses rivals, reaching 350 before the latter edged behind off Stephen Parry for 20.

At close Bresnan is just four runs shy of his fifty and new batsmen Liam Plunkett is on 5, with the score on 381-8. Now 112 runs on, the game is certainly in Yorkshire’s hands, but with just one day left any chances of a result would require a devastating collapse from Lancashire.