Harmison junior leads way for Durham against young Tykes
DURHAM'S batsmen fought the
jetlag to put in a solid show on
the first day of their two-day
friendly against Yorkshire at
Headingley Carnegie yesterday,
with Will Smith, Kyle Coetzer
and Ben Harmison looking in
good touch.
Durham, who arrived back
from their pre-season tour of
South Africa on Wednesday afternoon,
won the toss and chose
to bat, reaching 178 for five when
the rain came just after tea.
Harmison led the way with a determined
49 off 103 balls.
Yorkshire all-rounder Rich
Pyrah directed an inexperienced
Tykes' attack, picking up two for
31 from 15 impressive overs.
Harmison hit 56 and 44 in
South Africa and helped his
opening partner Smith register
an opening stand of 51. Smith
looked more confident, playing
well through the covers off the
back foot, until he was the first
wicket to fall to Pyrah for 29.
Coetzer was next to go, also for
29, courtesy of a loose shot off
the last ball before lunch to
young leg-spinner Mark Lawson.
Coetzer had helped himself to
two successive boundaries off
Lawson's previous over.
Harmison, playing under the
captaincy of his brother Steve,
then seemed to get bogged down
after the interval, resulting in an
edge behind off the bowling of 19-
year-old quickie Ben Sanderson.
At 113 for three, the hosts had
a foothold in the game. Without
ever really struggling, Durham
were unable to accelerate against
tight bowling from a young attack.
In fact, it was a young Yorkshire
side, full stop. Only standin
skipper Joe Sayers and South
African Jacques Rudolph have
been awarded their county caps.
Despite England's one-day
wicketkeeper Phil Mustard (16)
coming in to play a couple of
lusty shots, the tide slowly
turned.
The left-hander, who played in
all of England's winter limited
overs fixtures in Sri Lanka and
New Zealand, was comprehensively
bowled by James Lee to
leave the score at 149 for four.
It became 155 for five when
Pyrah picked up his second wicket
of the day by having Gordon
Muchall (18) neatly caught in the
slips by Sayers.
Gareth Breese got off the mark
in fine style by clipping Sanderson
over square-leg for six.
Bbut he was able to add only
nine runs before the rain came
shortly after the start of the
evening session.
Both sides will be fairly satisfied
with their day's work, perhaps
Yorkshire being the slightly
happier.
Their bowlers, Pyrah, Sanderson
(1-48), Ajmal Shahzad (0-27),
Lee (1-51) and Lawson (1-15) all
bowled tidily on a typical early
season pitch that offered some
help off the seam and through
the air.
But they will need to be a little
sharper in the field, with three
catches going down.
Durham are expected to declare
early today - they could do
it before play starts - and let
Yorkshire have a bat.
Whatever happens, weather
permitting, Steve Harmison will
bowl at some point for the first
time in match conditions since
early March.
9:14am Friday 11th April 2008
Print 
Email this 
Comment
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
