County Championship: Will Young steers Northants to draw with Yorkshire
- Published
New Zealand international batter Will Young batted for just over six hours for his 96
LV= County Championship Division One, The County Ground, Northampton (day four) |
Yorkshire 296 & 406-3 dec: Hill 151*, Brook 77*, Malan 75, Lyth 53 |
Northants 204 & 318-7: Young 96, McManus 62*, Keogh 48; Revis 3-57 |
Yorkshire (13 pts) drew with Northants (12 pts) |
Will Young made 96 to help secure Northamptonshire a draw with Yorkshire as the New Zealander's 241-ball innings helped his side see out the final day.
Northants resumed with all 10 wickets in hand but lost three in the morning session as Pakistan quick Haris Rauf struck twice in two overs.
Rob Keogh joined Young to settle Northants in a stand of 99 for the fourth wicket that used up 40 overs.
Keogh fell before tea and Young after the break, but Northants held firm.
Having got through 24 overs of the third evening unscathed, Northants were hopeful of batting through the day.
They were given an early jolt by Rauf who produced two sharp, short deliveries to have Ricardo Vasconcelos caught in the gully and Emilio Gay held at short leg for a second-ball duck.
George Hill became Yorkshire's eighth bowler of the day and his very gentle seamers drew a leading edge to cover from Keogh.
Young dragged Matt Revis into his own stumps after tea but Lewis McManus' unbeaten 62 from 141 balls saw his side to safety.
Yorkshire were without England paceman Matt Fisher, who starred in their opening win over Gloucestershire, was out with a back injury. But, although it is not a stress fracture, new coach Ottis Gibson expects him to be out for four weeks.
Northamptonshire's Will Young:
"We wanted to show some character and fight, to get something out of the game and I'm glad I played a part in getting the draw.
"There were also plenty of other guys in the team that stepped up and made really valuable contributions towards that.
"We're happy to come away with a hard-fought draw. Breaking it down into chunks helped. Our batting coach Ben Smith talked about 20-minute slots. We had a whiteboard and just crossed those off as they went by.
"Yorkshire bowled really well and threw all sorts at us. You've got to keep yourself mentally fresh somehow and ticking off little things like that helps."
Yorkshire head coach Ottis Gibson:
"There was some good effort, all the way to the end. That's how we intend to play our cricket going forward for the rest of the season.
"The first two days, the game moved nicely along. The last two days, it slowed right down. We felt that 120 overs would be enough to bowl them out. It proved not to be.
"Trying to get them out on a pitch that was offering us nothing, we had to dig deep. It was a shame we couldn't get over the line, but we showed a lot of fight, character and spirit, and that's very pleasing.
"Matt Fisher's injury is not a stress fracture. It's a stress reaction. The last time I spoke to the medical team they said he'd be out for about four weeks."