TECHNICALLY, Yorkshire’s loss to Somerset will go down as a tight loss on the final day at Headingley, but it was what came earlier in the week that really set up a frustrating loss as Martyn Moxon was left with the same old headache.
“When you analyse the game, it’s the batting that’s let us down again,” he said.
“I was bitterly disappointed with the first innings, we should have scored a lot more runs than we did and it’s come back to bite us.
“We know we can bat a lot better than that and 277 was miles below par on that surface, we should have got 400”
An encouraging debut from Jonathan Bairstow aside there was little to shout about in Yorkshire’s efforts of 277 and 248 as Somerset reached their second innings victory target of 296 before tea with six wickets to spare.
Resuming on 85 for one, Somerset looked well in control as Marcus Trescothick and Justin Langer put on another 36 with relative ease but a piece of bizarre misfortune got Yorkshire back in the game before lunch.
Trescothick looked set for a century, but went for 78 after the ball bounced off his pads onto his glove and looped charitably to Bairstow who took a simple catch behind the stumps.
Somerset were four down ten minutes later when James Hildreth chipped David Wainwright off his pads but succeeded only in flicking the ball straight to Jacques Rudolph for five to leave Somerset 139 for three and still 157 runs short of victory.
Langer was next to go after a 40-run stand with Zander de Bruyn from a regulation edge behind off Rana Naved when only four short of a half century, but the Tykes were fast running out of time.
By the time Craig Kieswetter was trapped lbw by Tim Bresnan for 25, Somerset had lost five wickets but were only 75 runs away from the target.
De Bruyn and Peter Trego stayed together long enough to end the game as a contest, although there was one moment of controversy when De Bruyn was struck on the pads by Bresnan with the ball appearing to be on its way to leg stump – but the umpire was unmoved with Somerset still in need of 47 runs.
That proved the last moment of hope, Trego was caught behind by Bairstow off Ajmal Shahzad but Alfonso Thomas and de Bruyn easily knocked off the final 22 runs to complete the win by four wickets with just over 40 overs still remaining in the match.
De Bruyn finished unbeaten on 70, an excellent display by a man who came in at five and produced exactly the kind of knock that Moxon will need for from one of his middle order in the near future if the Tykes are to turn around a winless run that has seen them slip into the bottom two.
Scoreboard
Yorkshire v Somerset At Headingley Carnegie
Overnight: Yorkshire 277 (J J Sayers 60) and 248 (J M Bairstow 82 no).Somerset 230 (C Kieswetter 83, A C Thomas 64 no; M J Hoggard 5-56) and 88-1(M E Trescothick 58 no).
Somerset Second Innings
M E Trescothick c Bairstow b Wainwright ........78
J L Langer c Bairstow b N-ul-Hasan ..46
J C Hildreth c Rudolph b Wainwright ..5
Z de Bruyn not out ............................70
C Kieswetter c Bairstow b Bresnan ...25
P D Trego c Bairstow b Shahzad .......23
A C Thomas not out ..........................12
Extras (b5 lb15 nb2)...........22
Total 6 wkts (85.3 overs) ..296
Fall: 1-36 2-131 3-139 4-179 5-221 6-274
Did Not Bat: M K Munday, D A Stiff, C M Willoughby.
Total Bonus Pts: Yorkshire 5 Somerset 4 Bowling: Hoggard 14-1-52-0. Naved-ul- Hasan 17-3-57-1. Shahzad 15.3-3-45-2.
Bresnan 20-4-55-1. Rudolph 1-0-1-0. Wainwright 18-0-66-2.
Somerset (18pts) beat Yorkshire (5pts) by 4 wkts.
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