Sussex 335 for 5 v Yorkshire
The road back to form and fitness was never going to be easy for Michael Yardy and the Sussex captain would probably acknowledge he still has some distance to travel. In scoring his first championship century of the season, however, the 30-year-old surely passed an important milestone.
Hard-earned it certainly was and made to look all the more so by the fluency with which his young team-mate Ben Brown reached a century of his own as Sussex recovered from being reduced to 27 for three after Yardy had won the toss and chosen to bat.
Ryan Sidebottom had done the early damage for Yorkshire, swinging the new ball from the Pavilion End. Chris Nash and Luke Wells succumbed in successive deliveries and, when the usually reliable Murray Goodwin followed soon afterwards, the large majority of a festival crowd of approaching 4,000 sat back in anticipation of a rare good day for Yorkshire.
By lunchtime they were less sanguine for all that Ed Joyce, having batted solidly all morning, had just edged a catch behind off Richard Pyrah. On a flat and, uncharacteristically for Scarborough, rather lifeless track Yardy had crawled to 21 and he continued to play with cautious deliberation after the break. Only four boundaries came in the 146 balls he took to reach 50.
Brown, by contrast, drove and cut with some style as the lack of depth in Yorkshire's bowling was badly exposed. The 22-year-old wicketkeeper batsman quickly passed his previous season's best of 61 before going to his century off 124 deliveries. Such an impressive rate of scoring ensured Yardy could continue to bat at his own pace, which meant he took 242 deliveries to raise his own century, but the applause when he did was rightly generous.
It was back in March when Yardy left England's World Cup squad and flew home after confirming he was fighting depression. He returned to domestic action in May but took another break in mid-June, meaning this is only his seventh championship match of the season.
"I haven't played much four-day cricket in the last couple of years and, like anything, it's a case of remembering how to do it," the all-rounder said.
"Ben came out and accelerated after tea and that helped us. It's a new-ball type of pitch, but there may be a little bit of spin there so we'll look to get a good score and hope Monty [Panesar] will come into the game."
Yorkshire did pick up one more wicket, Brown edging an attempted drive to the wicketkeeper off Sidebottom, but it is very hard to see how they could win from here. Relegation, apparently unthinkable after they came so close to winning the championship last season, is beginning to look more likely than not.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/aug/17/michael-yardy-sussex-yorkshire-championship
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