County Championship: Yorkshire batters hold out for draw against Lancashire

  • Published
Tom Kohler-CadmoreImage source, Rex Features
Image caption,

Tom Kohler-Cadmore's unbeaten 34 off 159 balls helped Yorkshire to a draw at Lancshire

LV= County Championship Division One, Emirates Old Trafford (day four):

Lancashire 276& 280-5 dec: Wells 124; Bess 3-84

Yorkshire 255 & 102-3: Kohler-Cadmore 34*; Hartley 2-27

Lancashire (13 pts) drew with Yorkshire (13 pts)

Lancashire's hopes of winning the County Championship title are realistically over after their bid for a final day Roses victory was thwarted by a dogged Yorkshire batting display at Emirates Old Trafford.

The Red Rose set Yorkshire an unlikely victory target of 302 in a minimum of 84 overs and then reduced them to 67-3 inside 35 overs.

But Tom Kohler-Cadmore, a Hundred winner with Trent Rockets on Saturday, played an innings of 34 not out off 159 balls to leave the home side disappointed.

Yorkshire finished on 102-3 in the 64th over when rain curtailed play at 16:10 BST.

Both sides claimed 13 points, and Lancashire are 21 behind leaders Surrey having played one game more, while sixth-placed Yorkshire are now 25 clear of second-bottom Warwickshire. They both have three still to play.

Lancashire scored 77 runs in 10 overs of batting at the start of play, losing Dane Vilas for 28 and George Lavelle to spinners Dom Bess and Jonny Tattersall on the way to 280-5 declared in their second innings.

Steven Croft finished unbeaten on 45 before his bowling colleagues got to work on a cautious Yorkshire top order who did not entertain the prospect of chasing the target.

Despite this Adam Lyth and George Hill both fell to loose drives as the visitors slipped to 26-2 inside 17 overs.

Lyth was caught behind off the seam of Will Williams before Hill was well taken by Vilas diving to his right at second slip off Tom Hartley's left-arm spin.

Yorkshire, 30-2 at lunch, came out after the interval with more intent. That did not mean they were going after the runs, but they were defending with more conviction and looking to put any bad balls away.

By this time, they were facing the double spin of Hartley and Matt Parkinson.

Kohler-Cadmore and impressive debutant opener Fin Bean shared 41 and took leg-side boundaries off Parkinson early in the session.

But it was Hartley who broke through again when Bean, on 25, edged behind a ball which kicked out of the rough, leaving the score 67 for three in the 35th.

Then came the key partnership in the game's outcome.

By now, runs were of no consequence. It was just about batting time for Yorkshire, whose cause was taken by Kohler-Cadmore and Will Fraine, the fourth-wicket pair who shared an unbroken 35 inside 30 overs.

Fraine finished with an unbeaten 18 off 83 balls, and there was only 40 minutes of play after tea before rain forced an early end to a hard-fought Roses fixture.

Report supplied by the ECB Reporters' Network.