Yorkshire Fizzle at the End of Both Innings

Yorkshire lose to Hampshire by 50 runs on the first day of the One Day Cup.

Playing at the iconic North Marine Road in Scarborough, the home side will feel like they missed a major opportunity to get their One Day campaign off on the front foot. Electing to field first, Yorkshire bowled and batted as well as one could have asked them to early on, but then seemed to run out of energy in the latter stages of both innings. 

Between overs in Yorkshire's innings

The Yorkshire bowlers did a good job at restricting Hampshire scoring in the ten over of the opening powerplay, and when going into the eighteenth over Hampshire found themselves at 68-3. Wickets from Ben Coad, Isaac Bepey and George Hill at this point gave the impression that Yorkshire were starting to get into the driving seat. 

However, when Tom Prest came to join Jake Lehmann in bat, the car door was slammed firmly shut. These two took the away side up to 215 runs, with a partnership of nearly 150 before Lehmann was caught behind off the bowling of Ben Cliff for 75 in the fortieth over. Things only got worse for Yorkshire in the ten overs of the third and final powerplay, with Prest going on to score an impressive 109 runs off 94 balls, and Ben Brown racing to a useful 34 runs off 17 balls. 

All in all, Hampshire found their way to 320 runs, when Yorkshire would have at least hoped to keep their opponents beneath the 300 mark. Dropping three catches certainly didn’t aid the home team's cause, but the bowling and accompanying fielding set-ups in the last ten overs still need to be better. This became most apparent when compared to the way Hampshire drew the momentum out of Yorkshire’s batting in the last ten overs of the second innings. 

At the start of Yorkshire’s innings, Will Luxton took the game right back to Hampshire with a half-century in 36 balls, and, alongside Adam Lyth at the crease, he ensured they passed 80 runs after their first powerplay. Unfortunately, Lyth went LBW to Andrew Neal in the eleventh over, then  Bennison suffered an arguably unavoidable run out at the non-strikers end. Oliver Williams then got the crucial wicket of Luxton in the eighteen over, but nonetheless, Yorkshire were at 155 by drinks, over 50 runs ahead of where Hampshire were at the same point. 

Yorkshire continued to look comfortable chasing the target of 320 as late at the thirty-seventh over, which they went into requiring a comparatively modest 104. Sam Whiteman had contributed 44 runs when he was caught off the bowling of Ashutosh Sharma in the thirtieth over, and Hill had reached his half-century in the 35th over, after facing exactly the same number of balls as Prest in the first innings (55). 

It was the fourth ball of the thirty-seventh over, when things started going wrong for Yorkshire’s batting line-up. Irritatingly, Finley Bean was run out when Hill, at the striker’s end, turned back on a good call for a run from his partner. This was potentially just an irritating slip up on the way to a successful run chase, but Hampshire jumped at the opportunity to build pressure on Hill and the lower order. Williams, Neal, Sharma, and Prest all bowled to their fields with particular accuracy from this point onwards. Only 3 boundaries were given away and catches were forced out of Hill, Harry Duke, Dom Bess, and Cliff. 

Yorkshire’s disappointing day, with poor endings to their innings in the field and at the crease, was brought to an end in the forth-seventh over, when Bepey was run out. Meanwhile, Hampshire should be highly praised for staying in both innings and closing them down ruthlessly.