Yorkshire v Warwickshire (County Championship) : Day One
Yorkshire opener Joe Sayers settled into another marathon LV Championship innings at Headingley Carnegie yesterday when bottom-of-the-table, Worcestershire, were the latest team to come up against his massive powers of concentration.
Rain ended play shortly before tea on the first afternoon with Yorkshire on 202 for one and at that stage Sayers had batted for four hours and 31 minutes for his unbeaten 86.
The Otley-born left-hander was continuing where he left off in Yorkshire's previous Championship match against Durham at Headingley, when he carried his bat in making 149 not out in the first innings and then ten not out in the second.
Sayers was on the field for the whole of the game and his total involvement now stands at 21 hours and ten minutes.
He has yet to be dismissed at Headingley this season after batting for 14 hours and seven minutes while totting up 245 runs off 215 overs and his staying power will be applauded by Geoff Boycott, who advised Sayers on his technique during the winter.
In the Durham match, Sayers was dropped at second slip by Michael Di Venuto on three and he had a similar escape on four yesterday when he edged Nadeem Malik to Ben Smith at first slip who put down the simplest of chances.
Once again, it proved to be a costly miss because Sayers, from that point on, never put a foot wrong as he assumed command of the Worcestershire bowling.
It was far from a one-man show, however, because Sayers' opening partner, Craig White, was also in superb form and he was just three runs short of his second century of the season when he tried to run Roger Sillence down to third man and only succeeded in giving a catch to wicketkeeper Steven Davies.
Darren Gough won the toss for the third time in four Championship matches and was happy to bat first on a pitch which had little movement in it for the fast bowlers.
Even so, the openers advanced at a snail's pace at the start, with 21 runs being etched out of the first ten overs and 34 from the first 20.
White then began to blossom with some well-timed shots through the cover and mid-wicket areas and at lunch he had made 42 out of 72 with Sayers' share being 27.
A leg-glance off Kabir Ali soon after lunch took White to his half-century off 115 balls with eight fours and the stroke also moved Yorkshire into three figures, the first century stand in the Championship at Headingley in exactly two years.
Sayers, too, was beginning to score more freely and soon after Bradford-born off-spinner Gareth Batty joined the attack he completed his half century in 188 minutes from 140 balls with six fours. He was going like a train compared with his Durham innings when his 50 used up 261 minutes and came off 212 deliveries.
White by now was in top gear, motoring into the 90s with consecutive extra-cover boundaries off Batty, but Sillence ended his innings after he had received 169 balls and struck 17 boundaries.
Sayers and Anthony McGrath raised the 200 to bring Yorkshire their first batting bonus point before rain brought play to a premature end.
Marcus Trescothick smashed his previous best first-class score of 219 with a superb 284 in Somerset's LV County Championship Division Two match against Northamptonshire 25 to increase calls for him to be recalled by England for the Test series against the West Indies.
SCORECARD
Yorkshire v Worcestershire at Headingley Carnegie
Yorkshire Won Toss
Yorkshire First Innings
C White c Davies b Sillence 97
J J Sayers not out 86
A McGrath not out 7
Extras (lb7 w3 nb2 pens 0) 12
Total 1 wkt (66.4 overs) 202
Fall: 1-177
To Bat: Younis Khan, J A Rudolph, G L Brophy,
A Rashid, T T Bresnan, D Gough, J N Gillespie,
M J Hoggard.
Bowling: Kabir Ali 20.4-6-51-0, Malik 16-3-47-0,
Nel 7-3-14-0, Sillence 13-2-39-1, Batty 10-0-44-0.
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