Result: Yorkshire won by 35 runs (D/L Method)

My Men of the Match: Rudolph & Mags

[Scorecard]

Ey up,

Games like this can reveal much about the current state of English domestic cricket: They show the steadily widening gap between first and second division cricket. The effect 20/20 continues to have on batting in the longer limited overs formats.  The degree of detailed thought placed into a schedule that takes Scarborough fixtures, traditionally a significant draw when played in the height of summer, and moves them back into the bracing winds of early May.

But it just might be that the real lesson from this match is that cricket’s demographics are moving inexorably in Yorkshire’s direction. For the Northants team that arrived at North Marine Road was one missing Johan van der Wath and Riki Wessels from the previous year, both players victim of a change in immigration criteria. Add in the tightening of Kolpak regulations and monetary incentives to field under 26 and under 23 year old players, and the need to have a vibrant youth policy is steadily being pushed to the fore.

Some sides will be better placed to handle that shift of emphasis away from reliance on imported talent. Northants may be one that has to make the transition over a number of seasons, as their starting eleven in this match had an average age of 30, only one under the age of 25, and included a number of journeymen pros whose careers have already seen them on a variety of county payrolls.

The contrast to Yorkshire is there to be seen. Our side remains fundamentally young and home grown. With so much cricket played in the region, and the talent and enthusiasm of the Asian community now tapped into the youth intake, we should be well placed if the effect of chequebook team development proves to be on the wane.

Having said that, the most eye-catching batsman and bowler for us here were Jacques Rudolph and Tino Best – examples of how selective overseas imports can increase quality and provide a standard for home grown cricketers to measure themselves against.

Rudolph was once again the mainstay of our batting, the third innings from him in eight days, a sequence that has seen  412 runs scored and his wicket lost just the once.  Whether he is feeding confidence to others or they are feeding confidence to him is a moot point. Perhaps it’s a case of chicken and egg, but the result was another Yorkshire total where Rudolph top scored but did so amid impressive contributions from others, not least an Anthony McGrath playing like a man who’s rediscovered the love of batting.

With weather affecting the Northants innings to the point where it became a 16 over shoot out, it’s hard to draw too many conclusions from our bowling. But it does seem that Tino Best will continue to have success if his yorker maintains the accuracy it’s shown so far, and it’s good to see Rich Pyrah back to the wicket taking returns of 2007 and 2008.

With Bresnan away for much if not all the summer, Pyrah remains our most experienced one-day bowler. It’s also appears to be his batting ability, sandwiched between Rashid and Wainwright, that is giving us the confidence to use the curious, but so far it has to be said successful, tactic of playing a side packed with all-rounders.

At some point you feel that’s an idea which could turn round and bite us on the arse, but for now we’re top of our group table after two highly convincing wins.

Si’thee later,

Len