Bloody Taunton. That ground looms large over Yorkshire’s recent past.

It’s not all bad memories. I’ve written before about how it was the rousing victory of 2008, by a team largely stripped of its capped players, which laid the blueprint for today’s home-grown youth oriented squad.

But since then it’s been a litany of disaster: Somerset making a mockery of our bowling during the record run-chase of 2009, last season’s ‘what the f#%k were you thinking when you declared again’ brainstorm, and now “Trescothick’s match”. Because with 189 from 257 balls in the first innings and 151 not out from 131 in the second, that’s probably what the game will be remembered as.

Personally I think it’s overly simplistic to say he was the difference between the sides – there are more complex problems to Yorkshire’s summer than the lack of a Trescothick in the batting order – but we’d certainly be heading off for the vital game at Hove with our confidence in better order if it wasn’t for the Somerset captain’s ability to bully away an opposition attack’s effectiveness.

Perhaps in a way Yorkshire do have a Trescothick in their side, or at least someone displaying similar form. Where would we be this season if Jonny Bairstow were suffering a similar dip in effectiveness as Adam Lyth? Instead his career continues to progress in the most pleasing manner; double hundred at Nottingham, eighty odd against Hampshire, 136 and 80 here, and sandwiched somewhere in between, bugger all for the Lions in front of the England selectors. As a Yorkshire fan, it’s hard to find fault with that sequence.

That 136 came as part of a two hour partnership with Gary Ballance on the opening day, but it’s the first three wickets tumbling in the space of six overs and the last six going for just 53 runs that’s the more familiar tale of the summer. It seems the problems we had a couple of years ago where painstakingly built up initiative is thrown away by a disastrous session of play has returned to blight this summer.

The 358 we eventually scored was below par given the conditions, and we were lucky to concede a first innings lead short of three figures when it was Somerset’s turn to bat. There’s again was an innings dominated by one batsman, backed ably by two others, but otherwise a catalogue of underperformance. Somerset may have regained their form since early season and look set to challenge for the title, but they wouldn’t be able to rely on Trescothick like this in every game, certainly not against sides with more confidence and form than Yorkshire. Others will need to pitch in.

Yorkshire’s second innings was another familiar story from this summer, almost but not quite. Four half centuries, three hundred runs, and batting a hundred overs is a decent enough effort, but just half an hour longer would have seen us safe. As it was, a target of 228 from 51 overs was always going to be chased down by Somerset given the pitch, their batting and the ghosts from the previous two years. But even so, to have 228 knocked off without taking a wicket is another dispiriting performance. A terrible result to take into what is now a match of incredible importance at Hove in terms of our division one survival.

In truth it’s hard to judge our bowling too harshly in this game. A flat pitch and a dominating batsman can undermine the confidence and effectiveness of an attack that’s been battered, traumatised even, on this square in the last two visits. Certainly the bowling figures themselves are misleading; Hannon-Dalby’s looking innocuous when he was arguably our best bowler, Rashid comfortably the leading wicket taker when he bowled poorly.

In fact Adil’s been bowling too short for too long now. So far in his career he’s been an ever present in our championship side, but that shouldn’t be taken for granted. Given his record at Hove, and Adil’s current form, I’d make Wainwright our first pick for Sunday’s game, with Adil getting into the side as second spinner, perhaps as much for his determined second innings fifty in this game.

Frankly if Wainwright doesn’t get a chance at Hove he should be looking for another club.

Result: Somerset won by 10 wickets

My Man of the Match: Marcus Trescothick

[Scorecard]

Si’thee later,

Len

(Match Photos by kind permission: Dave Morton. click on image for full size)